Political ping pong over the death of a woman medic in Calcutta | Arun Srivastava

by Arun Srivastava

Every one, either he is a hawker, a trader, a housewife, or a cinema artist is feeling anguished and exasperated over the rape and murder of the 31-year-old postgraduate medic at the R G Kar hospital and has hit the streets seeking justice for her. All want accountability from the Mamata government. But they could not spell out what they mean by accountability. Ironically none of them have a clear perception of the justice they are seeking. Their common demand is;" we want justice for the woman medic and CBI should hasten up the investigation and identify the culprits".

Their angst and protest are primarily directed against Mamata Banerjee and her police. Usually, the government and police administration come under attack for this nature of crime. None can deny that the deceased soul must get justice and her predators must be punished. It is indeed a slur for a civilised society. It was precisely for transparency in investigation and handing over justice to the deceased that the case was handed over to the CBI, just fter couple of days of the ghastly crime.

Nevertheless, the Supreme Court’s September 9 order sends the message that the CBI which was entrusted with the task to identify the culprits by the apex court has not accomplished the task even after one month. The top court had to direct the CBI to submit a fresh report by September 17 on the probe in the case. The question arises why the CBI was delaying the probe? Is it intentional? The agency sleuths are supposed to ask for all documents from the police. But in this case it was found to be faulting. The Kolkata police had earlier not submitted the challan. Certainly, it is at fault. But since the top court has entrusted the case to the CBI, why should it not seek that document? Was it to delay the probe and also to put the state government in dock?

How could CBI fail to procure the challan from the Kolkata police? It has separate columns for the name and caste of the deceased, gender and age, residence, the place where the body was found, the date and time when the body was dispatched along with the distance from the scene of crime to the morgue where the post-mortem would be carried out, how the body was transported along with the officer accompanying the body, marks on the body, the prima facie cause of death and what clothes and articles were sent along with the body. Without the challan the doctor cannot perform the post mortem.

The junior doctors have the right to resort to agitation seeking justice to their deceased colleague. But how could they ignore their moral responsibility of not attending to the ailing patients. The issue came up before the apex court today. The court had to direct the protesting doctors to resume work by 5 pm on Tuesday and also cautioned that no adverse action shall be taken against them on resumption of work. This was the second occasion court had to instruct. In its earlier hearing too the court had asked the doctors to go back to their jobs. But they disobeyed the court’s order.

They are grieved does not mean that they should deliberately kill the poor patients. The court was told by state government counsel that 23 patients have died. But unofficial sources put the death figure at more than 50. This is really deplorable. At least 5,000 scheduled surgeries had been cancelled across the state’s 26 government medical college hospitals because of the agitation. An average of 400 elective surgeries used to take place daily at the government medical college hospitals, but the figure has dropped below 100 since the cease-work began. A five-year-old boy with kidney stones and an elderly woman who had suffered a stroke were refused admission at SSKM, while a man with a stroke was sent back from Medical College Kolkata.

The bench observed; "A status report has been filed by CBI, it appears that investigation is in progress, we direct the CBI to file fresh status report...We don’t want to guide the CBI on its investigation". Appearing on behalf of CBI, the SG told the bench that the probe agency has decided to send forensic samples to AIIMS for further investigation. Obviously question arises why so far CBI has not send it AIIMS.

The primary task of the CBI was to identify and put on trial the rapist-killer. It is most unfortunate that CBI even after a month has not come out with a candid revelation that how many culprits were in volved. Or, was the crime committed only by the civic volunteer? Why the CB I is not coming clear. This is the prime issue that has been agitating the common people, particularly the Bhadralok middle class. Kolkata Police had arrested ne person, a day after the crime. Even some CBI officers hold that the evidence they had gathered so far suggests the involvement of one man. Test results received so far did not indicate DNA strands of more than one person.

It appears that the rightist forces, the independent elements are out to create a Bangladesh-like situation. The apprehension gets strength from the allegation of the home ministry that state government has not been using the three companies of CISF for safety of the doctors and hospitals and also has not provided them accommodation. The entire happening sends a clear message that rightist forces are out to force a complete administrative breakdown. The nature of the agitation has turned a large section of the people to wonder if this could this turn a new leaf in Bengal’s political landscape. Are the rightist forces out to create lawlessness in state?

The trajectory of the agitation during last 30 days makes it amply clear that it has not only lost direction, but also the perspective. The movement started for justice to the woman has taken the turn for Mamata bashing and creating lawless situation.

Perilously so far the CBI has not succeeded in establishing the fact that principal of the college was involved in the crime. The CBI is putting its entire efforts and brains to prove that he was corrupt and it was inability to provide a good governance. In a way he was being used to vilify Mamata and her government of patronising corrupt and promoting corruption. CBI is out to dig skeletons. Nice. But he must strictly adhere to its assigned task: find put the culprit who raped and killed the woman. Beating around the bush and projecting the principal as a most corrupt person will certainly not delivery justice to the woman.

The Trinamul Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar while expressing his desire to step down from the upper House of the Parliament as well as retire from politics has pointed out the serious threat the political institution of the state was facing. He pulling up the Mamata government for inept handling of the crime, pointed out that "there is a need to change strategy or the communal forces will take over the state."

The fact is the communal and rightist forces been dictating the agitation and deciding its course. The mode of their agitation does not reflect what actually they desire or seek from the government. Delivery of justice at this stage is the moral responsibility of the CBI. But it won’t be an exaggeration to say they are serious and have been hedging around.

The sincerity of the CBI in delivering justice to the woman medic is evident from this small piece of news. A week back a lower court in Sealdah was hearing the bail petition of the accused. Realising the importance of the case the CBI’s IO should have been present just at the time. IO instead deputed his assistant who did not know anything about the case. Even CBI counsel was not present. An enraged judge around 4.30 in the evening said “okay then I am granting bail to the accused.†However after 40 minutes of this, the CBI produced a lawyer. But he was not the regular counsel of CBI. He came before judge at 5.10 pm. Angry judge relented and sent the accused for more 14 day judicial custody. This exposes the machination and intentions of the central agency.

Just a day before the Calcutta High Court came out with the direction to hand over the case to CBI, responding to a petition seeking a CBI probe, Mamata had gone on record that Kolkata police would arrest the culprit by Sunday, just after four days of the court order. “In case Kolkata police fails I will hand over the case to the CBI†, she had said.

High Court could well have acceded to the plea of Mamata and allowed Kolkata police four-days time. Only the next day of the order the CBI took over the case, but even after a month, it has not officially come out with the information that how many criminals were actually involved in the crime.

It is also said that if Mamata had interacted with the junior doctors, this situation must have been averted. Personally, I believe it would not have worked. Attack on the protesters inside the hospital in the night of August 14, and later the procession of the medics to Lal Bazar police head quarters and handing of a spinal cord to the Kolkata police chief make it explicit that some forces are working from behind the curtain.

In case of the medic, a number of groups have apparently launched their separate movements. But a closer look would make it clear that at some plane they share the same perception and idea. Incidentally the media too has started questioning the protesters about their leaders.

Confusion persists about the true intentions of the protesters. Basically this has been the reason that some eminent scholars who had earlier greed to be part of the Sunday’s Reclaim the Night had developed cold feet. Nivedita Menon, SC advocate Vrinda Grover dissociated themselves from organising group; Economist Jean Dreze, Actor director Aparna Sen say they just shared thoughts; Partha Sarathi Sengupta says role limited to courts. Menon told media "We were not informed that we would be named as part of a formal advisory committee. The impression conveyed to me as well as Vrinda Grover was that the organisers would occasionally reach out to us when they draft a document with recommendations, etc." Dreze emphasised; I’ve shared thoughts on durable measures for women’s freedom and safety. As an outsider, I would not presume to understand the complexities of the agitations that are happening in Kolkata, I have shared some thoughts as I normally do."

Bengali stars known for being outspoken have been conspicuously mum on the rape-murder that has rocked Calcutta and the country. These actors have been quite vocal in 2013, during a massive rally against the gang-rape and murder of a college girl in Kamduni. Sabyasachi Chakraborty, a popular actor known for his left leanings, hasn’t spoken a word in public. Konkona Sen Sharma was outspoken about sexual harassment has remained silent on RG Kar. Actress Madhabi Mukherjee was a passionate advocate of harsh punishment for crimes against women. During the 1990 Dhananjoy Chatterjee case, she was at the forefront, demanding capital punishment. She has not commented on the RG Kar incident yet.

Actor Rituparna Sengupta faced hostility from a group of protesters at Shyambazar as she arrived at the protest venue. By now it is clear that the protesters do not want that persons who can question their identity should associate with the agitation. When she attempted to address the crowd, protestors shouted: "Go back."

It is really sad that an attempt is being made to create economic crisis in the state. The protesters should have requested the apex court to set a time frame for CBI to complete the probe. It is significant so far CBI has not contradicted or found fault with the initial probe of Kolkata police.

Surprisingly after nearly twenty day of the crime, the parents of the girl have come out with the accusations against police and government. They said; "We wanted to keep her body. But there was so much pressure on us. We were sitting in front of Tallah police station for an hour and about 300-400 police personnel surrounded us and created such a situation that we were almost forced to return home. When we returned home, we saw that 300-400 policemen had barricaded our house. The circumstances were such that we were left with nothing more to do. We were forced to cremate our daughter’s body.

Father of the girl even alleged that he was offered huge money by a police officer, which he refused to take. But his statement has been contradicted by none else but by chief minister, Mamata Banerjee. She said, "I went to the victims’ house but did not give money but spoke about compensation following Court order. I told deceased doctor’s parents that if they wanted to do something in their daughter’s memory, our government was with them". Now the question arises? Who is lying; Mamata or medic’s father. In all fairness instead of waiting for more than 20 days, he should have revealed just soon after the incident. A senior Kolkata Police officer claimed that they are in possession of a video in which the victim’s parents are saying they have no allegation about the police offering money.

Political party flags were notably absent. Instead, protesters held the national flag aloft. In fact the protesters have been conscious of not letting the agitation to go out of their hands. This was the reason that the RSS and BJP have floated an independent Chhatra Samiti to take out rallies and motivate the people to come to streets. In the case of agitation of this nature usually the identity is kept secret.

An ’apolitical’ march was organised by the fifteen-day-old Pashchimbanga Chhatra Samaj and Sangrami Joutha Mancha. Nevertheless, the main architect of the Samaj has been the RSS. It got exposed at a press meet at the press club just a day ahead of the Nabbana rally. The protesters are a cocktail of various political affiliations. While the BJP cadres are in the lead. The supporters of CPI(M) and left have been organising a torchlight procession

Junior doctors have also been questioning who decided to allow an undefined number of people inside the room? Who were these people? The Kolkata Police have claimed that it had sealed a 40-foot area where the body was found, while the crowd was in an 11-foot area outside. A senior police officer had in a media conference pointed to people at the crime scene and identified them as experts and police personnel. Soon after, the Indian Medical Association’s West Bengal chapter had pointed out that the person the cops claimed was a fingerprint expert was actually a junior doctor who is part of the Trinamul Congress Chhatra Parishad.

Surprisingly a section of the media has been equating with those ’Ten Days That Shook The World’. It is irony that the Governor CV Ananda Bose, accused of molesting a Raj Bhawan lady employee remarked that the West Bengal government is "going from wrong to wrong".