More than 24 hours after news of the law college gang rape had generated a wave of revulsion across Bengal, there hadn’t been a squeak out of Trinamool’s top two: chief minister Mamata Banerjee and heir apparent Abhishek Banerjee.
The BJP and the CPM alleged that the duo were silent because the prime accused was associated with Trinamool.
“Mamata Banerjee and her party leaders have nothing to say because it has been exposed that the main accused is a TMC leader, who was appointed as a casual staff member at the college through a reference from the governing body,” said Shamik Bhattacharya, Rajya Sabha MP and the state BJP’s chief spokesperson.
“This incident has revealed that TMC leaders are involved in atrocities against women.”
The alleged gang rape has landed the ruling party and its government in deep discomfiture, coming as it does within a year of the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee at RG Kar Hospital. Prime accused Monojit Mishra is a former leader of the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad unit atthe college.
“The Trinamool links of the prime accused and his photographs with several senior leaders, including Abhishek, have made it easier for the Opposition to attack the party. It’s embarrassing,” a Trinamool insider said.
Trinamool leaders and spokespersons have been condemning the crime and demanding the death penalty under the Aparajita Bill, passed by the Bengal Assembly last year but awaiting presidential assent.
They are, simultaneously, trying to shield the party by drawing comparisons with how BJP-ruled states handle such incidents and how the Left Front government did so in Bengal in the past.
The BJP has been asking whether Trinamool has learnt anything from the RG Kar tragedy. Had there been tighter control over student leaders like Mishra, they argue, the latest barbarity could have been avoided.
“There have been no students’ union elections (in Bengal) for years, and now criminals and local councillors dominate campuses,” Bhattacharya said.
“This incident proves that despite the murder of a student (during ragging) in Jadavpur University and last year’s RG Kar incident, the TMC’s top leadership has not learnt any lessons about the need to control these criminal party leaders.”
The CPM too questioned Mamata’s silence but said this was nothing new as Trinamool leaders have often described the party’s criminally inclined activists and leaders as “assets”.
“The (gang rape) survivor is a TMC worker. How can Mamata Banerjee and her nephew speak out when this incident proves that women are being abused in return for positions within the student wing?” CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty said.
According to the woman, her ordeal began shortly after she was offered a post in the women’s wing of the college’s Trinamool unit and accepted it.
“Now they’ll try to disassociate themselves from the accused for a few days. But nothing will change, because these people are the TMC’s assets,” Chakraborty said.
He referred to how Trinamool strongman Anubrata Mondal had got away by abusing a police officer and his wife and mother.
“After the RG Kar incident, there were delayed remarks from the top two leaders. Despite Anubrata abusing a police officer and his family members, nothing happened. In this case, they might not say anything at all,”Chakraborty said.
Survivor shaming
Senior Trinamool leader Madan Mitra’s efforts to blame the woman student has made matters worse forthe party.
“Had the girl not gone there, the incident would not have occurred,” the MLA told ABP Ananda on Saturday.
Several Trinamool leaders said in private that such “victim shaming” by veterans like Mitra was causing more damage to the party’s image, and the top leadership should therefore speak out.
Some “loyalists”, however, argued that Opposition parties could not dictate when or whether their top leaders should speak out. They insisted that the statements made by party spokespersons had the approval of both Mamata and Abhishek.
“Are our leaders holding news conferences without their (Mamata’s and Abhishek’s) consent? The Opposition cannot decide who will speak, or when, from our party,” Trinamool leader Kunal Ghosh said.
Whataboutery
A senior Trinamool leader asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Union home minister Amit Shah ever commented on similar incidents.
He said there was little room for criticism, as the police had arrested all the accused within 12 hours of the complaint being lodged.
“In our state, we condemn such crimes immediately and the police act without delay. On the other hand, the BJP leaders who are now raising questions didn’t even bother to condemn such incidents in their own (BJP-ruled) states,” Ghosh said.
Silence logic
But what has prompted Trinamool’s top two to brazen it out in the face of all-round criticism?
Political scientist Biswanath Chakraborty believes that remaining silent on such uncomfortable issues is often the most prudent political choice for any ruling party.
“In politics, it is often wiser for top leaders to remain silent on such matters. If Mamata Banerjee or Abhishek comments, it could escalate the embarrassment and provide the Opposition with more ammunition,” Chakraborty said.
Several political observers suggested that Trinamool’s core leadership seemed to believe that a divided Opposition lacked the wherewithal to pose a strong electoral challenge.
What could push the ruling party on the back foot is a people’s protest, like the RG Kar agitation, but it has to be on a scale that encompasses both the rural and urban populations, they said.
Until that happens, Trinamool’s top two would continue to treat political protests with disdain, a political observer said on the condition of anonymity.
BJP push
The BJP on Saturday held multiple protests across Bengal’s districts on the issue of women’s safety, looking to target Mamata in the lead-up to next year’s Assembly elections. The party has lined up political programmes through Sunday and Monday.
State BJP president Sukanta Majumdar and several other leaders were arrested during a protest in Gariahat.
BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra held a news conference on the issue to highlight what the party claims is worsening law and orderin Bengal.
Party president J.P. Nadda has formed a four-member fact-finding committee that will visit Calcutta soon.
Unlike the RG Kar case, a section of BJP leaders is not demanding a CBI probe this time. At a news conference on Saturday, BJP MLA and state general secretary Agnimitra Paul said she preferred a state police investigation of the gang rape.
The CPM and the Congress, too, held multiple protests in the state on Saturday.