INDIAN MANDALA The politicisation of a rape case in West Bengal

For almost a month now, Kolkata has been rocked by protests and demonstrations, initially organised by feminist movements. However, in recent weeks the Bharatiya Janata Party has repeatedly called for the resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, taking advantage of popular discontent.

Calcutta (/Agencies) – It has been almost a month since the lifeless body of a 31-year-old medical intern was found after she was raped and murdered at the end of her shift at the RG Kar teaching hospital in Calcutta, according to an autopsy.

However, in the Indian state of West Bengal Protests continue. Initially led by feminist groups, in recent weeks they have morphed into an opposition movement against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, better known as “Didi” or “elder sister”. In reality, the protests are being politicised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the party that heads the national government and is in opposition in the eastern Indian state.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, there are 32,000 sexual assaults in India every year, one rape every 15 minutes. However, this is most likely a vastly underestimated figure (according to official data Kolkata has the lowest number of attacks among the 19 major Indian cities studied.

The “Girls, reclaim the night” movement was immediately joined by nurses, medical students and women demanding stricter laws, faster police responses and better working conditions for doctors and women in general. But the case later became a corruption story and the BJP used the opportunity to demand the resignation of the leader of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), which has been in power in West Bengal for 13 years.

When the doctor’s body was found on August 9, the police informed her parents that their daughter had committed suicide. Two days ago, the young woman’s father said that he had been pressured to cremate the body immediately: “We wanted to preserve our daughter’s body,” he said. It is not clear whether the police also offered money to parents.

Meanwhile, the Calcutta High Court has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), an agency under the central government in New Delhi, to take over the investigation: “I had asked for five days to take up this case – Mamata Banerjee lamented – but they handed him over to the CBI. They are not seeking justice, they are trying to get a reprieve,” he said, referring to the BJP members.

Several people are currently under investigation, including the former director of the university hospital, Sandip Ghosh, who left his post on August 12 but was assumed as head of another prestigious public hospitalthe National Medical College.

In response to mounting criticism, the West Bengal Legislative Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill which provides for the death penalty for those responsible for sexual assault, as well as special teams and courts and timely investigations in rape cases. “This bill is a model and it is historic, and anyone with good intentions will support it,” said Mamata Banerjee, despite criticism from legal experts, who They rated the project as “a political trick”, “an impulsive reaction” and “a form of spectacularization”.

Regardless of the outcome of the investigations (currently Indian law requires that the investigation be concluded within two months of the first complaint, i.e. by October 9), the leadership of “Didi” and the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal could be seriously damaged by this case.

Mamata Banerjee, 69, has been involved in politics since she was a teenager and founded the TMC with others in 1988 after leaving the Congress Party, which is still headed by the Gandhi family. She came to power in West Bengal in 2011, defeating a 34-year-old communist government.

A leader highly appreciated by the local population, she has always positioned herself as an antagonist of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, rejecting the Hindu ultra-nationalism of the BJP, although in West Bengal (where 30% of the population is Muslim and part of the middle class) the latter has become the second political force after the TMC. In the last elections, “Didi” refused to ally herself with the Congress, remained independent and won the bet.

But the image of a personalistic state control (her nephew also started to participate in politics in recent years) and an increasingly corrupt one could also lead to Mamata Banerjee’s downfall. An eventuality that the BJP is trying to use to its advantage by participating in the demonstrations of the last month and encouraging general strikes by medical staff.

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