Efforts by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to suppress public indignation over the August 9 rape-murder of a junior doctor in Kolkata’s finest government-run hospital have failed. The government’s use of force against peaceful protesters, including physicians, students, and regular citizens, has fueled public dissatisfaction. The Chhatra Samaj student group’s rally in Kolkata on Tuesday to demand justice for the slain doctor demonstrated the state government’s use of disproportionate force to stifle democratic protests.
Mamata, who had participated in street rallies against Marxist governments in the state, went to great lengths to prevent protesters from approaching Nabanna, the state government’s headquarters. Normal traffic was almost completely blocked at all major entry points. The Howrah bridge was closed to normal traffic just hours before the students’ protest march resumed. The region surrounding the Nabanna focal point became a police and paramilitary fortress.
Despite this, demonstrators battled with police and attempted to break past barriers to reach the state secretariat headquarters. Expectedly, the police high-handedness against the students’ protest on Tuesday caused the BJP, which unsurprisingly has seized on the genuine outrage at the rape-murder of the doctor to target the TMC government for its failure on the law-and-order front, to call a 12-hour bandh in Kolkata on the following day.
The West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Forum organized a rally on Wednesday to demand safety for female medical professionals and an investigation into the rape-murder of a junior doctor at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9. The Kolkata police claimed they were targeted by protestors, yet the use of lathi-charges, tear gas, and water cannons against those attempting to break police barricades was unjustified. The cops used disproportionate force to chase away protesting students after making it a prestige issue to not allow them near Nabanna.
Despite his strong condemnation of the use of force to suppress the protest, Governor C V Ananda Bose’s constitutional position required him to quietly summon the chief minister to the Raj Bhavan rather than issue a press statement.
In the meantime, Mamata should recall her remarks on the Modi government during the farmers’ protest in the national capital a few months back. She criticized the deployment of tear gas by Delhi police to prevent farmers (now students) from approaching the Central Secretariat, while advocating for their fundamental rights.
If Mamata reads her statement from the farmers’ protest, she will see that her actions as chief minister of West Bengal on Tuesday to prevent the Chhatra Samaj protest were similar to the central government’s attempt. The West Bengal authorities used extreme force against student protests, unlike the central government’s use of mild force to prevent farmers from causing mayhem in New Delhi.
Currently, the situation is reversed. Long-term power can turn a street warrior into an authoritarian who suppresses democratic rights and popular rage. Her hubris and authoritarianism will have serious political and electoral consequences in the near future.
Author: This news is edited by: Abhishek Verma, (Editor, CANON TIMES)
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