Bengal: No Mamata

The comments on the heinous rape case of Hanskhali by the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee are too shocking. Instead of condemning the crime, Mamata Banerjee has trivialised the issue by saying that it could be the case of a love affair and, as a result, the girl might have got pregnant. In the first place, what has prompted the head of the State to pass such a controversially unbecoming opinion, the incident that has been vehemently decried even by her party leaders—Mahua Moitra and Sougata Roy?

Now just think upon the plight of the parents whose daughter, as young as 14 years, was gang raped and died the next day. Has the CM’s remark not rubbed salt into the wound of millions of mothers and tender girls? Many are casting aspersions as the accused in the case is the son of one of the TMC leaders. TMC is always right in Didi’s West Bengal. On the Chief Minister’s comments on rape, Nirbhaya’s (2012 Delhi gang-rape victim) mother also burst in an interview: “Mamata does not deserve the CM’s post if she is making such comments about a victim who has been violated.”

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‘Criminal investigation in shameful rape #Hanskhali leading to victim death is tainted & compromised when people in authority & constitutional position indicate judgmental stance. This against the law approach scuttles fair & independent probe as police is forced to toe such line’
— Jagdeep Dhankhar, Governor West Bengal, in a tweet

One scholar of Kolkata—Shri Amitabh Sen, who happens to be an ardent well-wisher of my book Great Minds on India, divulges—“cases of inhumane rape by TMC cadres and the “imported citizens” are daily affairs in West Bengal. In many districts, the people live in constant fear that an onslaught of cruelty may befall them at any moment and against which they cannot lodge even FIRs. What might happen to them the next moment is not known. Instead of celebrating joy with flowers and fun, the TMC cadres had celebrated the last election victory by spraying bullets and killing and torturing countless people who were suspected of disagreeing with Didi’s style of governance.”

Needless to say, violence against indigenous Hindus is so blatant at places that they are experiencing Kashmir-like situation. One schoolteacher of Murshidabad laments—“We cannot move out during the evening. We fear keeping any expensive articles at home. There are rampant cases of theft every day. Not just that, Hindu girls are teased, molested, and raped with impunity by a specific community. There is practically no one we can turn to for our safety and security. We are like orphans in our State now.”

There is no denying that there is no end to the suffering of the majority of Hindus in Bengal now. The police department can hardly take any effective action against the perpetrators. On condition of anonymity, a social activist from Asansol quipped: “That how many people have been killed and how many women have been raped in the last decade is unimaginable. The media always try to hide or blackout the atrocities committed against Hindus. But, even a small defensive retaliation against the cruel perpetrators is blown of our proportion by the same bunch of journalists. What a big irony that the Chief Minister is wearing the sari of sanyasini but her hands are stained with the blood of endless massacres”.

For over a decade, while the situation has been so anarchical and discriminatory in West Bengal, the Governor himself has helplessly shed tears while speaking in public forums. Seldom any administrative machinery responds to the directives concerning law and order from the Raj Bhavan.

Incidentally, given the repeated rape cases in the State, the Calcutta High Court has also expressed its deep sense of disappointment. It has now been ordered to investigate the recent four rape cases of Matia, Englishbazar, Deganga and Bansdroni jointly, and the intervention of the CBI has also been sought.

Here the question is how long women and native Bengali population must endure such perverse crimes and violence in West Bengal? Can we pinpoint what and who all are to blame? One believes that the custodians of the Constitution, who are literally doing nothing to Stop the bloodbath, are equally guilty of complicity. What’s more, this “perpetual silence and inaction” has only made the holler of terrors shriller than ever before.