Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 16: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday said atrocities against women in West Bengal, Bihar, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh (UP) have shaken the country and asserted that repeated leniency in cases, political protection for the accused and granting bail or parole to convicts let down women.
“When Government statistics show 86 rapes taking place every day, from whom should women expect protection?” she posed in a post on X. “Atrocities against women in Kolkata, Bihar, Uttarakhand and UP have shaken the entire country. At this time, women across the country are in grief and anger,” Priyanka Gandhi said on X.
The Congress general secretary’s remarks come amid nationwide outrage over the rape and murder of a trainee postgraduate doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata last week. In a similar incident, a nurse in a private hospital in Rudrapur in Uttarakhand has also been allegedly raped and killed with her face crushed with a stone by the accused who dumped her body in a vacant plot in a Uttar Pradesh village near the Uttarakhand border.
A 14-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly kidnapped from her house in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar and her body was found, with injury marks all over, in a pond. “Whenever such incidents happen, the women of the country see what the governments are doing. How serious are their words and measures? Wherever there was a need to send a strong message about the safety of women, efforts were made to save the accused,” Priyanka Gandhi said.
“Repeated leniency in cases of heinous atrocities on women, political protection to the accused and actions like granting bail/parole to convicted prisoners let down women,” she said. “What message does this send to the women of the country? When government statistics show 86 rapes taking place every day, from whom should women expect protection?” Ms Gandhi asked.
The Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav slammed the BJP and accused the party of making “political benefits” from the horrific rape and murder of the medic in Kolkata. While answering a question regarding the incident, Mr Yadav said, “Any incident with a woman across the country is sad. Action should be taken against it. Mamata Banerjee is a female chief minister, and she will take action. But these people of BJP are doing politics.”
“BJP has a talent for doing politics on every incident. BJP has the talent of taking political benefit over every incident and dishonouring others,” he added. Before interacting with the media, Akhilesh Yadav offered flowers on the statue of freedom fighter Maharani Avantibai Lodhi in Lucknow to mark her birth anniversary. The statue is located right outside the gate of UP BJP’s state headquarters.
Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress leader and the party Rajya Sabha member Derek O’Brien sought an assurance from the CBI that its taking over the probe into the rape and murder would not lead to the case being “quietly buried.” He said the public outrage over the incident was understandable and the investigation should not be buried quietly.
“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,” he said in a post on X.
About West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee leading a rally demanding that the CBI should give daily updates on the investigation, and that the probe should be completed before August 17, Mr O’Brien said, “CBI, which is now handling the case, must give daily updates on the investigation… The deadline given by the CM to Kolkata Police to complete the investigation was August 17. The same must apply to CBI.”
“Kolkata Police has arrested one accused. Justice will happen only when CBI nabs all involved and sends case to a fast-track court,” he said. “CBI taking over the case shouldn’t lead to it being quietly buried,” the TMC leader said.
Mr O’Brien said the urgent need of the hour is swift justice and harshest punishment for the culprits. “No one who committed this barbaric act must be spared,” he added. The TMC MP also said action would be taken against those who ransacked the RG Kar Hospital. Unidentified miscreants entered the premises of the hospital shortly after midnight on Thursday and vandalised portions of the medical facility, where the body of the woman doctor was found last week.
Another Trinamool Congress’ leader Santanu Sen, who had pointed out previous complaints against the principal of Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College where a trainee doctor was raped and murdered last week, has alleged that he has been removed from the position of the party’s spokesperson.
On Friday, Mr Sen said he did not speak against the party nor any leader, claiming that he came to know about his alleged removal from the position through media. The Trinamool leader, who is also a doctor, expressed his unhappiness alleging that “a devoted and true soldier of the party has to face this” while defectors are given respect.
He doubled down on his charges against the hospital and its principal, who has since stepped down, saying that “accurate information” was being kept from the Bengal Chief Minister. “I would say the same thing that I said on the first day, news related to the Health Department is not sent accurately to CM and Health Minister Mamata Banerjee,” he said, adding that a series of complaints had been filed against the principal over the last 3 years.
Mamata Banerjee’s government has ensured necessary development in every medical college in the state but this is the only Principal about whom there is so much controversy, he said. The leader, however, pledged his commitment to the party. “I would like to say that I have worked as a soldier in all battles of TMC and I continue that way even today. I was with TMC and will remain with TMC,” Mr Sen said.