R. G. Kar Case Casts A Shadow Over Durga Puja 2024

The flowing, white kash flowers, showcased in Satyajit Ray’s first classic, ‘Pather Panchali’, have returned near the shores of the rivers of lush green rural Bengal, as the monsoon returns, and the festive season arrives, with the first nip of early winter. Tragically, Durga Puja, the biggest festival in the state, will not be celebrated with the same pulsating joy and collective bonhomie this year.

The people of Kolkata, and Bengal, are still filled with deep angst and anger at the R. G. Kar Medical College rape and murder case. Massive protest marches on the streets have returned once again, in what was once called ‘the city of processions.’

Durga Puja this year will be low key. This is the tribute the people of West Bengal are paying to the young woman medico who was so brutally murdered and assaulted in her own workplace all through the night.

The ghastly incident has so shocked the people, that from taxi drivers and tiny, roadside tea-shop owners, to housewives and college students, all are refusing to relent, until justice is done. They are demanding that all working women should be able to work in safe and secure work environments, and the entire health system in the state should be radically transformed.

Clearly, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is on a sticky wicket, and it will take an extremely long time for her to regain political ground.

The low key festivities would badly hit the legendary artists of Kumartuli in Kolkata, and the ‘dhakis’, who play the ‘dhak’ during the evening puja ceremony, with women and men dancing with lighted ‘dhunuchis’.

Among others, women ‘dhakis’ too are badly hit, whereby various puja committees are compelled not to invite them.

This is happening as much across the city of Kolkata, as in most of the small towns and villages of the state. In a state with poor industrial infrastructure, and a severe lack of employment, this would mean a huge economic loss for these craftsmen and artists.

Besides, some puja committees have refused to take Rs 85,000 offered to each one of them as financial assistance for the celebrations. They have refused the money in protest against the rape and murder of the trainee woman doctor. The state government gives Rs 85,000 to all puja committees for Durga Puja every year.

Meanwhile, as Banerjee seems to be playing trade union politics with the protesters, including the protesting doctors, there continues to be a stalemate between the two. While she is ready for talks, for some reason, negotiations are not happening, and a solution seems far away. Clearly, the doctors are not relenting, and so are the thousands of protesters, especially women, who are out on the streets, in the daytime, as well as in the nights.

This reporter covered two such rallies in Kolkata recently, and found angry people refusing to call back the protests. In a march held by women in South Kolkata, with them holding candles and shouting slogans, a protester said that she has just come back from a hard day’s work, and she will continue to march on the streets every day till justice is done.

Not a day has gone without her participating in the demonstrations. And she is just one among many women, who have resolved to fight till the end -- come what may!

A telling picture tells a tale. At the state headquarters, Nabanna, which has now replaced the iconic Writers’ Building where Comrade Jyoti Basu presided over the fate of the state for three decades, Mamata Banerjee is waiting in an empty hall, with rows of empty chairs. She is waiting for the doctors in what is the first direct negotiations between the state government and the protesters.

The government had promised “free and frank” talks, with no preconditions. However, the doctors did not come. Instead, they protested outside the venue, in incessant rain, holding umbrellas, shouting, “We want justice.”

As the protest continued, the CM came down and met the doctors. She said that decisive action will be taken, justice will be done, and their demands will be taken care of.

She said: “I have come forward by leading the student movement. I have also struggled a lot in my life, I understand your struggle. I am not worried about my position. It rained all night yesterday, you were sitting here protesting, I was worried all night.

“After listening to your demands, I will study them. I do not run the government alone, I will definitely find a solution by studying your demands with senior officials. Whoever is found guilty will definitely be punished. I am asking for some time from you.

“The state government will not take any action against you (protesting doctors). I request you to return to work. All the work related to the development, infrastructure, security of the hospital, has been started and will be done.”

Earlier, senior and junior doctors had refused a dialogue. A certain email by the state health secretary had apparently added to the stalemate. The email stated that the number of participants in the talks would be limited. Not more than 10 people would be allowed. The message was reportedly delivered by cops.

The doctors do not want a closed-door meeting for the talks. They want it ‘live-streamed’ so that the people can witness the talks. They are arguing: “When everything is out in the open, what is the point in holding secret talks?”

Meanwhile, around 29 patients have died due to the non-stop strike by the doctors across the hospitals in the city. In a press meet held at the Kolkata Press Club, distressed families of the patients said they have lost their relatives and loved ones since the doctors have refused to join work.

Most of the patients seeking treatment at the government hospitals come from humble backgrounds. They simply cannot afford to go to the private hospitals mushrooming all over Kolkata, which charge exorbitantly, as is the norm across big cities in the country.

Since the crisis became intense, and a large number of patients were suffering, finally, the doctors chose to return to their wards. The patients, and there relatives, thereby, have heaved a sigh of relief.

Earlier, Mamata Banerjee told the media that money has not been offered to the parents of the trainee doctor who was murdered on August 9. “Money wasn’t offered to the family. They were told that if you want to do some good work in the memory of your daughter then tell us. One has to prove if money was offered,” she had said.

The former principal of R. G. Kar Medical College, Sandip Ghosh, with a bad track-record, is in judicial custody till September 23. Among other things, he has been accused of financial misconduct.

Three others, a security staffer and two contractors have also been sent to prison along with him by a CBI court. His custody is bound to increase for many more days. His house has been raided by the Enforcement Directorate.

What has miffed the doctors and ordinary citizens is that the chief minister was clearly seen to be protecting Ghosh, even after the ghastly murder of the young woman doctor. Instead of sacking him immediate, and starting immediate proceedings for his punishment, he was quickly given another plum posting in a top job in Kolkata.

Why should a shrewd and popular mass leader, as she is, who knows the pulse of the people of her state, choose to do this, remains a mystery.

There is widespread belief that the principal, and his henchmen, were running a mafia-like operation in the hospital for a long time. Serious allegations have leveled by students and doctors, and there seem to be too many skeletons in his shady cupboard.

His henchmen, including some doctors close to him, would reportedly demand huge sums of money from candidates appearing in the exams. They money would exceed lakhs and had become a lucrative industry for the mafia.

Besides, there are allegations that Ghosh would routinely threaten the students that he would fail them in the exam and destroy their career, if they don’t fall in line with his sleazy activities.The cops and the government seemed to have a turned a blind eye, as they seem to have done in the case of some corruption cases in the state, including the massive scam in teacher’s appointments in schools.

A former deputy superintendent has filed a petition in the Calcutta High Court alleging that the hapless students were forced to shell out as much as Rs 8 lakh to pass the exams.

Meanwhile, according to media reports, the dark and diabolical phenomena of ‘Dark Lord’ and ‘Death-Eaters’ has emerged, turning the people’s shock into utter dismay. This particular person and his gang, operating like underworld gangsters, remain strangely invisible, in the shadows, and no one seems to know their name or identity.

He is also known as the ‘super health minister’ and ‘de-facto health minister, and apparently has been calling the shots since a few years now. It is alleged that some members of this gang belong to the ruling party and its students’ wing.

Meanwhile, the Apex Court has raised concern questioning the absence of a crucial document necessary for the post-mortem of the young woman doctor. It has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate it. The court pointed out the delay by the Kolkata Police in registering an FIR in the rape and murder case.

It has directed the CBI to present a report by September 17. It has also ordered that all pictures of the woman medico should be removed from social media.

After the mass protests against the murder and rape of ‘Nirbhaya’ in Delhi, led by students, including the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), this is perhaps the first time that such a case has sent shock waves across the entire country. There has been a national outrage against the ghastly R. G. Kar case, though several other cases of brutality against young girls and women have been reported since then, and in the recent past. Demonstrations and rallies were staged all across India, especially led by women.

Political observers in Bengal believe that the CM has made a serious mistake by protecting the principal and dilly-dallying on the issue. Indeed, they are asking that why should a mass leader, a woman and street-fighter, who so ardently admired and supported women in the towns and cities of the state, as well as across the countryside, should choose to not act immediately and decisively after August 9, remains a mystery.

“I just can’t understand. If anybody knows how to handle crisis, face the most adverse conditions, and tackle difficult situations, it is Mamata Banerjee. Her political life has been full of struggles.

“She should have immediately moved, hit the streets, made the top police brass accountable, and sacked this shady principle of the medical college. Instead, she seemed to be looking the other way. Why? It beats me,” a Trinamool Congress (TMC) supporter said.

A student based in Delhi said: “I voted for her. She was on a high after defeating the BJP decisively in the parliamentary polls. Her political graph was rising.

“The Congress and CP-M have been routed in the state. With the Opposition going full power against Narendra Modi, led by Rahul Gandhi, and a defeated Modi on the back-foot, she was poised to play a crucial role in national politics, and in the I.N.D.I.A bloc.

“Now she has given the BJP and others a handle to strike back. There is no doubt that the BJP has no credibility whatsoever in West Bengal, and they will have no impact, but why choose to give them a handle at all?

“It’s time she seriously rethinks her politics, gets rid of all the corrupt persons who are spoiling her name, and gives a clean and efficient government. She has done massive work in the last ten years, something the CP-M willfully did not do in the 30 plus years of their rule.

“She has reached out to the poor, her social welfare schemes are highly successful, especially in education for girls in rural Bengal, and she was poised now to do bigger things.

“She should bring in industry and business in Bengal. She should turn around its sagging and stagnating economy. That should be her agenda, not protecting a criminal like Sandip Ghosh,” a young entrepreneur said.

“I have no doubt that her mass base, especially in rural Bengal, will remain intact. However, it will take time and effort. The huge protests would certainly serve as a lesson for her. I am telling you, she is a street-fighter. She will overcome,” a TMC activist in Burdwan said.