The young Kolkata doctor’s rape and murder and its aftermath is undoubtedly the most acute crisis that chief minister Mamata Banerjee has faced in her 13 years of misrule in West Bengal.
That is because the great challenge this time is not coming from her political opponents; Banerjee is adept at ruthlessly dodging or demolishing those.
The dare has come from the very people of the state over whom she till now held an enviable emotional sway. And defiance has come from her own party — and possibly her own family — which has been firmly under her thumb.
West Bengal has erupted with the kind of spontaneous outrage that even the CM’s opponents, the BJP and the CPI(M), fear to openly exploit lest it backfires on them. From lanes and bylanes across the state, women and men have come out of their houses with candles and conch shells, brooms, and the old shoe.
Her party colleagues have rebelled. Going against the party line, Santanu Sen and Sukhendu Sekhar Ray demanded action against RG Kar Medical College principal Dr Sandip Ghosh and the vandals who raided the hospital.
Sen was removed as spokesperson. Ray was summoned by the Kolkata police.
But the bigger story is that the media is reporting a shift between Mamata and her all-powerful nephew Abhishek over the issue.
But even with the scale of odds stacked up against her this time, it won’t be easy to dislodge Mamata Banerjee.
Here are the reasons.
First, don’t count on Mamata Banerjee’s conscience. She has tried to prove every high-profile rape, gang rape, and murder of women in her state as fake or staged — from Park Street to Kamduni, post-poll brutalities to Sandeshkhali. She won’t step down taking moral responsibility.
Second, she electorally starts with a 30 per cent consolidated Muslim vote in West Bengal. That kind of deliberately skewed demography makes her almost unassailable. Although, a CPM waking from dormancy with the Kolkata horror protests might slightly dent it.
Third, Mamata has created a brazenly corrupt and outlawed underbelly which shields her with money and muscle. Mobs assemble within minutes to ransack, beat up, and intimidate opponents into silence, the police browbeat victims rather than culprits, and a corrupt cabal carries out scams in every aspect of life from Rose Valley to Covid relief, Saradha to Narada, SSC to Muslims in OBC quota, coal to cow with unchecked audacity.
It is hard to break that nexus of beneficiaries.
Fourth, it is widely speculated in Bengal that the BJP is in cahoots with the TMC. ‘Didi-Modi ek saathe’, ‘BJMool’ have become popular phrases. In spite of the slew of scams, wanton electoral violence, and a near-collapse of law and order, the Centre hasn’t taken any strong, decisive action, Bengalis believe. So, people are scared to vote against the TMC and invite retribution.
Fifth, and a very potent factor, are the doles that the Mamata Banerjee government hands out in a state ridden with poverty. West Bengal lost 3 million jobs while Maharashtra added 2.4 million workers in the informal sector in just seven years between 2015-16 and 2022-23, show National Statistical Office data.
Rs 500 or Rs 1,000 from Lakshmi Bhandar works wonders on poor women, and helps them make ends meet in the family. Never mind that doles have created a Rs 6 lakh crore debt hole for the state.
Sixth, the once-invincible Left is almost dead in West Bengal. Although there are some signs of regeneration with the old Left mechanism mobilising the current protests, it may not be enough to revive the force. The state leadership is weak and confused.
And seventh, the judiciary has thundered but not rained down on the Mamata regime in spite of its egregious transgressions, especially in law and order. She has got a very long rope from the Milords so far. The current Kolkata High Court and Supreme Court hearings may seem like a harsh reality check for the TMC government, but Kapil Sibal and his battery of top lawyers fighting against justice for the battered victim may still get their way in saving their client, the Mamata government.
To deservedly dislodge it, general citizens, doctors, media, and state opposition parties will have to show special resolve.
Abhijit Majumder is a senior journalist. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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