It has experienced one Brutal Rape, of a young doctor; then another, this time of the law and order machinery of the state. The author, in a video recording, blames the government machinery, not just in West Bengal, but elsewhere too, just as much, for not giving due to the citizens, as they fall prey to manipulations and statecraft, so often slow to act, or for misusing it.
Kolkata is angry and Kolkata is angry because it is bad enough a city experiencing one brutal rape, but it becomes an ultimate tragedy when a city experiences two brutal rapes in the same period of time. It was on the 9th of August, most of you know by this time, when a junior doctor, a 31-year-old girl, was brutally, horribly mercilessly gang raped in one of the premier teaching hospitals of our city.
Human crime, human perversion, human acts of brutality can happen in any country, any city, any place. Human perversion is not new. And even though we hate it from the bottom of our hearts, it is going to recur again. But what happened after this rape, when the body of this young girl was discovered was no less a rape of the law and order mechanism of our state. Kolkata police force, who probably in their history of more than 150 years, has solved one of the many, many, many puzzling cases like all capable, intelligent police forces of our country. The police come to the scene and through a series of inexplicable, amateurish, stupid, knee-jerk actions, you have probably heard it, you know of it by heart by this time. The first response was to record a case of almost accidental death, unnatural death within a few minutes. This was followed by the family being informed by somebody who’s not yet been identified that this is a case of suicide. And that was followed up by a postmortem in the same institution at lightning speed.
At lightning speed, even before the primary biological evidences were collected from the scene. The postmortem happens literally in a matter of minutes. And after the postmortem, the entire establishment, the police, the college authorities, and probably with the invisible involvement of the government in the background, they were in an unholy hurry to cremate the body as soon as possible.
Has the family at all had a view of this young girl who had promised the family a very middle-class family, a very middle-class parents who through a lot of difficulty were bringing up this young girl to be their hope in life? The family probably didn’t even get a good look at the dead body.
So, one brutal gang rape, which was an act of human perversion, was quickly followed by an equal act of constitutional brutality. It was a constitutional rape of the law and order mechanism of West Bengal in particular and India in general.
…………And when in a day’s time, this country stands up and celebrates its Independence Day, let it remember that the state law and order mechanism is not independent of the brutal manipulation from state governments in our country. Whatever be the state. It is West Bengal today, it is can be Maharashtra tomorrow, it can be Rajasthan day after, it can be Kerala next. So, is this not a question, this mother of democracy needs to address? Is this not a question that has to emerge in today’s India? Through all our patriotic fervour? One can understand that in a real world, there will be one or two isolated instances. But once this has become a systemic disease in our country and the systemic disease is reaching its toxic lethal levels, who will stand up and take notice, who? Half the media is either sold to the central government, the other half is sold to the state governments.
Today, the doctors are on strike. And as the doctors go on strike, the only time the public conscience, the only time when the public conscience surfaces is when the doctors are at the receiving end of the human equation. Every minute the doctors are being reminded. It is your duty to serve the people. It is your duty to serve the sick. Is it not the duty of a police force to conduct an impartial investigation. Is it not the duty of the state governments of the 30 odd states of India to enable its police force to function with a spine, to function with a conscience, with a brain. It is only we doctors who will be reminded time and time and time again that it is only we are the last remaining profession in the country who are supposed to have a sense of duty.
Today, I share every ounce of the anger that every doctor, India has nearly a million doctors, and through the minds and through the brains and through the hearts of each and every of these 1 million doctors in our country, we are angry. The city is angry, the profession is angry. And if there is one thing that the Indian society does not want on the eve of the Independence Day in 2024 is the cynical, brutal rape of the law and order mechanism by the political feudal class, whatever, be the city, whatever be the state.
…………………………. This was a crime scene which had blood, which had hair, which had skin, which had semen. The only thing, the criminals did not leave behind was either their passports or their Adhaar cards………………
If we as a people, if we as a country, if we as a profession, if we as dutiful citizens who will be singing choruses in 24 hour’s time, have a little bit of hope of rational law and order in our society, all of us together will have to stand up and condemn in the harshest possible way the repeated numerous, countless incidents where our law and order mechanism is under the influence, has been manipulated by successive governments. And there has to be, there has to be a concerted public movement whereby the police force who are perfectly intelligent, who are perfectly capable, they’re one of the best professionals, but they are under tremendous pressure. They have to bring their bread home. They have to look after their professional careers, they have to survive. And it is this threatening the survival of this machinery is where the government is able to manipulate them.
So, unless we are, unless we carry the conviction in ourself that the so-called modern India, the so-called fourth or fifth largest economy of the world, the so-called Mother of all Democracy, unless this Mother of all Democracy does not give its citizens an independent law and order mechanism, which is independent from the brutality of its political influencers, this tragic theatre, these tragic incidents will repeat again, again and again. Like all Indians on the eve of our Independence Day through this despair, we live in hope.
(The above has been condensed and abridged from his talk for reasons of space.)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The author is one of the most experienced heart surgeons in the city; director and head of cardiac surgery at Medica Superspeciality Hospital, Kolkatta.
