One has rarely seen men with grey hair in long kurtas, the quintessential Bengali Bhadralok, and Bhadra women come out on the streets to protest against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The RG Kar incident seems to have turned a key and influential constituent of Bengal against Banerjee, the consequences of which could be far and wide.
Such rallies have become a daily affair in Kolkata, with more scheduled for Wednesday. The participants are middle-class citizens from housing groups, office colleagues and parents, which shows that the middle class is angry with the government’s handling of the RG Kar rape and murder and its aftermath of summoning prominent citizens like doctors for their social media posts.
“They could have called the doctors and told them their information was wrong…What was the point of summoning them? Why drag a doctor of this repute who is an ambassador of Bengal?” asked Suparna Ganguly, a middle-class home-maker, pointing to the case of Dr Kunal Sarkar who was summoned by the police.
Dr Sarkar, meanwhile, told News18 that the common man is upset with the Trinamool. “TMC has been a party that has worked for the common man. People feel what will happen to our children now… am I next? Hence, they are on the roads.”
Minu Ganguly, who works in the IT sector, said it is unacceptable that the police cannot protect women in the state.
The aam aadmi’s protest seems to have got some heft after cricketer Sourav Ganguly, who has stayed away from protesting on any issue, and his wife Dona decided to join the agitation on Wednesday.
Speaking to News 18, Dona Ganguly said: “Everybody is upset, therefore it’s a necessity that such protests should take place. All my dance school students are telling me that we should protest. We have to seek justice.”
The Political Fallout
TMC did well in the Lok Sabha polls, winning 29 of 42 seats, but they did not perform as well in the urban areas. Of 122 municipalities, BJP was leading in 69 municipalities and in Kolkata, out of 144 wards, the TMC lost in 44 wards.
Political observers say Mamata Banerjee was in the process of regaining urban voters by launching a massive encroachment drive in Kolkata and other areas but the RG Kar incident has proved to be counter-productive for her.
The protests on the streets are reminiscent of the movements during the Singur and Nandigram agitations when the Bengali civil society came out on the streets against the Left Front government. The rest is history.
Today, the RG Kar horror dominates any small or big social gathering in Kolkata. Songs have been made by singers, painters are protesting with their painting and poets have come up with their compositions to register their protest against a lax system that is unable to protect its women.
So far, the attitude of TMC leaders such as Udayan Guha and Arup Chakraborty has been of belligerence towards those taking to the streets to demand justice. Will the TMC finally course-correct by increasing communication with common people and assuring them? Only time will tell.
Comments
0 comment