IPS officer Damayanti Sen did not know what hit her when a transfer order was handed to her in April 2012. Sen was the new toast of the Kolkata media. She had just cracked the Park Street rape case. Sen, the Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Kolkata Police, was shunted out of that position and sent to Barrackpore Police Training College as DIG (Training). Her fault? She had the audacity to puncture the new Chief Minister’s claims. Mamata Banerjee, less than a year-old in the Writer’s Building, had just trashed the rape case as ‘shajano ghotona‘. It was a ‘fabricated incident’, claimed Banerjee, ‘to taint her new government’.
Damayanti Sen investigating, nailing, and nabbing the five culprits of the Park Street gang rape case did not go down well with Didi. Sen went against the CM. No one crossed Didi the wrong way.
That was 2012. This is 2024.
In between, the Banerjee government has seen Hanskhali, Kamduni, Kakdwip, Ranaghat, Siuri, Sandeshkhali. A rape in Hanskhali that she dismissed as ‘affair’, the protesters in Kamduni whom she called ‘CPI(M) supporters’, a question on crimes against women that she termed ‘Maoist’ (2012). Her stunning silence that rang through the corridors of Writer’s when complaint after rape complaint was buried in police stations across Bengal in May-June 2021.
As Kolkata grapples with another alleged rape and murder, as protesters reclaim the night screaming for justice, Mamata Banerjee is protesting against the protests. Are you too wondering who her protest is against? Are you too wondering if she isn’t the person in power in the state?
Trust Derek O’Brien, the TMC Rajya Sabha MP who has always defended Banerjee’s excesses and lacks, to have an explanation for a ‘fair question’: “Justice will happen only when CBI nabs ALL involved and sends case to a fast-track court. CBI taking over the case shouldn’t lead to it being quietly buried. The urgent need of the hour is swift justice and the harshest punishment for the culprits. No one who committed this barbaric act must be spared.”
It is hard to conceive of a more bestial, heinous crime than the murder and rape of a young woman that took place in Kolkata. The public outrage is entirely understandable. Thoughts and prayers with her family.
“Why is @MamataOfficial leading a rally on the RG Kar Hospitalâæ
— Derek O’Brien | àæáàçàæ°àçàæ àæ’àæ¬àçàæ°àæ¾àæïàæ¼àçàæè (@derekobrienmp) August 16, 2024
The blame has been shifted to the CBI. The state government has conveniently washed its hands of the young doctor’s blood. The Chief Minister, with all her women MPs and MLAs, is on the street protesting against the protest against her government for not being able to solve the case. Because no one trolls it like Didi.
Take, for example, April 2022. A 14-year-girl was allegedly raped in Nadia. The girl died. The CM said, “This story they are showing that a minor has died due to rape, will you call it a rape? Was she pregnant or had a love affair? Have they enquired? I have asked the police. They have made arrests. I was told the girl had an affair with the boy.”
The accused was allegedly the son of a local TMC heavyweight.
Then there was the Kamduni gang rape in 2013. When Banerjee went to Kamduni 10 days after the incident, she had to face a mob of angry women. One of them had shouted at her, “Aapni ki mukh dekhate eshechhen? (Have you come here to show your face?)” The encounter was a few days before Mamata’s panchayat poll campaign, and Didi smelled conspiracy against her government, once again.
“People here are CPM supporters. I am sorry to say, CPM is doing politics. All the goons arrested (for the rape-murder) were CPM supporters. Chor-er ma-er boro gola (the thief’s mother shouts the loudest),” Banerjee had spat at the crowd before getting into her car. The crowd was unforgiving. They all knew that the main accused was a relative of the TMC panchayat pradhan.
In Banerjee’s diary of faux pas, it is the rapes that occupy the top spot. Especially if a person from her party is to blame. Mamata Banerjee, foot firm in her mouth, has rubbished one too many rape cases in her years in power. Year after year after year. Her persecution complex rings the shrillest when she, a woman leader, is asked for answers on rape cases. If the questions are asked by the opposition, may the force be with them.
In the RG Kar case too, as conspiracy theories fly thick and fast, and powerful names do the rounds in hushed voices; as women ululate, blow into the conch, hold candlelit marches and demand justice from the state government; Banerjee’s response is textbook Banerjee. Call yourself the victim before someone calls you out. This is a fact. No shajano ghotona.
