A week after RG Kar rape-murder, Kolkata remains in shock, spews rage

Anger. Mistrust. And a resolute demand to know the answers to a number of shocking questions.

That is the overwhelming mood at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, a week since a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee (PGT) doctor was brutally raped and murdered in the dead of the night while she was on duty in its chest medicine department.

And that is also the mood in the city that houses the 138-year-old institution, one of its oldest and most well-known state-run medical establishments. Because so far, despite the plethora of speculations and rumours, more questions have been raised by the woman’s family, friends, colleagues, and the people than the state and the police have managed to answer.

This time, what started as a doctors’ protest has snowballed into a large-scale mass protest — all seeking justice for the young doctor and, at the same time, asking some tough questions of the state government and the hospital.

“We want justice”

As the rest of the country celebrated Independence Day today, a bunch of junior doctors continued to protest outside the emergency unit of RG Kar hospital — under a makeshift awning with a tilted banner affixed on two bamboo poles declaring “We want justice”. To the left of the main gate, another massive banner demands “Justice for Abhaya”.

While a posse of policemen guarded the locked and deserted outpatient department a stone’s throw away, a large number of state and city police personnel stood guard on the emergency campus as the junior doctors continued with their sloganeering — interspersed by speeches by former students who dropped by as a mark of solidarity.

Even as cries of “We want justice”, “No safety, no duty”, “No justice, no duty”, and “Amar didir jobab chai (We want answers for our sister)” reverberated across the campus, fear and mistrust were palpable among the protesters. And their anger was directed at the media too, which matched the police personnel in number. Together, they far outnumbered the handful of protesters on campus.

None of the doctors was ready to divulge their names, even though they sat in a public protest. Perhaps, their security lies in their cohesion, or so they believe.

But why are they still protesting, even though the case has been handed over to the CBI, and the principal and superintendent removed, as they had demanded? “We want justice and exemplary punishment for the rapists as soon as possible. We want all the culprits associated with this heinous crime to get arrested as soon as possible,” said a female protester, who only identified herself as a resident doctor of the hospital, told The Federal.

Remarkably, a large number of resident doctors protesting on the campus are men. They are ones in charge of sloganeering, and even though they insist their protest has no political colour, not many are willing to speak to the media and repeat the same lines spoken by the female resident doctor.

Questions Kolkata is asking

Their mistrust is not without any reason. On Wednesday (August 14) night, a bunch of goons stormed the emergency building of the hospital and vandalised it even as the city was gathering on the streets as part of the “Women, Reclaim the Night” protest.

“Where is the CBI?” questioned a young woman who refused to identify herself and simply said she does a job. “What was the CBI doing when the mob vandalised the emergency building last night? We can only see Kolkata Police here,” she looked around in frustration. “What has the CBI done yet?” she asked. “As a woman, I’m here to demand my own safety. I’m here to make sure that doctors, our life-savers, can be fearless when they perform their duty,” she asserted.

Questions are not only being raised at RG Kar; the entire city is asking questions. Two elderly men exiting the Shyambazar Metro station, the closest to the hospital, could be heard asking the same questions. “Did you hear that a mob attacked RG Kar hospital yesterday? How can the administration let this hooliganism go on,” one asked the other.

When Governor CV Ananda Bose dropped in for a visit on Thursday, the resident doctors asked him the same questions. One of the protesters asked him how could outsiders enter the hospital twice, in the presence of Kolkata Police, vandalise the property, and threaten the lives of the doctors, staff and even patients. “What will be done about that?” he asked

As the governor promised “justice” and “exemplary action”, the sloganeering started at once, even before he vanished inside the hospital for a meeting with the authorities.

Not all who came to the hospital were students or young people. A burqa-clad woman, who refused to be identified, had come all the way from Barrackpore, some 20 km away. She said she simply came “as a mother”. “I could not stay at home. I also have a young daughter. Her [the deceased doctor’s] mother must have brought her up with so much hope. She must have been so happy that she became a doctor. But see how those demons took her away from her mother,” she wept, adding that “Didi [Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee] must rein in her goons”.

Anger against the state and the police is overwhelming, with a large number of people sternly believing that enough was not done in the case by them and that there was an effort to shield the “insiders” involved in the crime. As media personnel Shreyoshi Lahiri put it, “the situation has reached a stage where people have no faith left in the police and the TMC government. Even if they tell the truth, no one is ready to believe them”.

Lahiri herself joined the midnight march on Wednesday at Garia crossing in the southern flanks of the city, simply answering a Facebook call. In the three hours that she walked, she said there was a “steady stream of people that blocked four roads”. “People raised slogans, some painted, some lit candles, a small theatre group staged an impromptu street play,” said Lahiri. “Members of a nurses’ association came; they lit candles,” she narrated.

Are women safe?

What has hit the people of Kolkata the hardest about the incident is that it has always prided itself as a safe city for women. Incidents such as the 2012 Park Street gang rape in the heart of Kolkata and the 2013 Kamduni gang rape and murder case in the city’s suburbs had also sparked massive furore across the city. But what makes the RG Kar hospital incident much worse is the fact that it happened in a state-run hospital, when the woman was on duty. Many are questioning if a woman doctor is not safe in a state-run hospital, what can they expect out on the streets.

“I went on the march as a woman and as a die-hard traveller,” said Lahiri. “I may have to wait at a desolate railway station at night, I often have to leave for the airport at night, and if I’m not safe in my own city, how can I feel confident in other places? Also, in future, will women feel confident about working night shifts? If that happens, an entire section of society will never move forward. They will never have the courage to do anything fearing for their safety. And who will take responsibility for this if not the state government?” she added.

A young protester at RG Kar hospital said as much. “If a woman is not safe in her workplace, how can we declare that the city is safe for women?” she queried.

Mahasweta Samajdar, editor and social activist, who was one of the organisers of the midnight march at the Academy of Fine Arts in central Kolkata, however, does not believe that Kolkata has lost its “safe city” tag because of this incident. “Our anger is against this conspiracy that was hatched at one of our oldest and most favourite medical colleges and hospitals, in which the chief minister and her party also seem involved,” said Samajdar.

Samajdar explained why they had planned the march at the Academy of Fine Arts in the first place. It was a remark made by Dr Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of the medical college, that “triggered” their anger. He reportedly asked, “What was she [the deceased doctor] doing in the seminar room so late in the night?” Samajdar said, “If anyone should be held responsible for this brutal rape and murder, it should be him. Why was the doctor working continuously for 36 hours in the first place? And how could he dump the blame on her for her own rape and murder?”

Protest that grew organically

Initially, the march was planned at three locations. “But it grew organically and was finally held across 300 locations across India and abroad, and we eventually lost track. It was even held in London and two locations in Poland,” said Samajdar.

She voiced what a large number of people, including the protesters at RG Kar hospital, believe as well — the crime could not have been done by one person, so why was one person made the “scapegoat”? Why was the crime scene tampered with in the name of renovation? Why did a section of interns try to guard the principal? Why did they and the police beat up those, including Samajdar, who went to the hospital on Friday (August 9) afternoon, several hours after the woman’s body was found?

It is noteworthy that Samajdar and her friends ran a campaign called “No Vote to BJP” before the 2021 Assembly elections as part of the Bengal against Fascist RSS Group. Samajdar maintains that her stand against the BJP remains unchanged, but she has no confidence in the TMC either.