Howrah: Union Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar on October 21 launched a sharp attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, saying her claims on women’s safety stand “completely exposed” after a woman doctor at Uluberia Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Government Medical College in Howrah was allegedly harassed and threatened with rape by a Home Guard.
In a post on X, Majumdar said the doctor was traumatised and living in fear, noting that no security personnel were present at the hospital at the time.
“After the bone-chilling R.G. Kar Medical College rape and murder incident, the Chief Minister’s loud claims stand completely exposed. The latest proof – the shocking incident at Uluberia Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Government Medical College in Howrah. A woman doctor was harassed and threatened with rape inside the hospital by a Home Guard! The doctor also alleged that, there were no security personnel present at the time. The victim is now traumatised and living in fear,” he wrote.
“No matter how much the failed Chief Minister @MamataOfficial tries to shirk responsibility, she and her incompetent, exposed police administration are squarely to blame. Under Mamata Banerjee’s rule, women in Bengal are terrifyingly unsafe, and each such incident shows the Trinamool government’s sins have overflown their limits,” he added.
Majumdar also shared a statement from the West Bengal Doctors’ Forum (WBDF) regarding the incident, attached to his X post. In their statement, the Doctors’ Forum confirmed the incident, stating that the doctor, attached to the Gynaecology and Obstetrics Department, was assaulted, humiliated, and threatened with sexual violence on the evening of October 20.
The Forum said the state’s entire administrative machinery, including the police and judiciary, has “failed and betrayed the doctors.” It has also demanded immediate arrest of the accused and the deployment of armed, accountable security personnel at government hospitals.
“The WBDF stands firmly with the assaulted doctor and all medical professionals who face abuse and violence while serving the people. If the state remains deaf and blind, the day is not far when West Bengal’s hospitals will fall silent – not from lack of patients, but from the silence of doctors who refuse to die at their workplace. We will not be intimidated. We will not be silenced. We will not forget,” the WBDF statement read. (With inputs from ANI)
