West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has called for speedy action and death penalty in rape cases. Dedicating the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad’s foundation day rally to the rape-murder victim at RG Kar Hospital, Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said Bengal will soon bring a law for timely trial of rape cases with death penalty for the culprits. Party general secretary and MP Abhishek Banerjee also urged all parties, including the BJP, to enact a similar law at the Centre.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said her government’s policy is to have “zero tolerance towards rape incidents” and a bill will be passed in the state Assembly next week to amend existing laws dealing with these cases to ensure death penalty for rape offenders.
Mamata Banerjee said that if the governor delays approving the amended bill or sends it to the President for approval, she will sit on a dharna outside the Raj Bhavan. The Chief Minister said that the Trinamool Congress will start a grassroots movement in the state from Saturday to pressurize the Center to pass a law giving death penalty to rape convicts.
“We will pass the amendment bill in the special session of the assembly next week. Then we will send it to the governor for approval. If he keeps the bill pending, we will sit on dharna outside the Raj Bhavan,” he said at a rally organised on the foundation day of the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad.
The party chief dedicated the foundation day to the doctor who was raped and murdered at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital earlier this month. Mamata Banerjee also dedicated the event to the victims of atrocities and abuse across the country.
He also raised the issue of sexual misconduct allegations levelled by a former woman employee of the Raj Bhavan and accused Governor C V Ananda Bose of making false allegations against his government and party.
Mamata also urged the protesting junior doctors of Bengal to return to work. These doctors have been on strike for 20 days. She said, “I have been sympathetic to the issue of the doctors from the beginning, as they are demanding justice for their colleague. Despite so many days having passed since the incident, we have not taken any action against them. We understand your pain, but please return to work now because the patients are suffering.”
On August 9, the police found the body of the female postgraduate trainee doctor in the conference room of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. In protest against this incident, junior doctors of government hospitals have been on strike since the evening of August 9 and are demanding justice.
Mamata Banerjee said at the rally, “It has been 16 days since the Central Bureau of Investigation took over the investigation of the doctor rape-murder case from the Kolkata Police. Where is justice?”
Launching a scathing attack on the BJP for calling for a 12-hour bandh, he said, “They (BJP) called for a bandh because they wanted political mileage out of a dead body. The BJP is trying to take advantage of the sentiments of the common people in the wake of the death of a young woman. They want to defame Bengal and are hatching a conspiracy to derail the investigation into the incident so that the victim and her family do not get justice.”
The Trinamool chief said, “If Bengal is set on fire, it will also impact Assam, Northeast, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Delhi.”
He said the Bombay High Court had recently banned political parties and individuals from calling for a Maharashtra bandh.
On the demand for his resignation in the wake of the RG Kar Hospital incident, Banerjee said, “I want to ask the BJP why Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not resign for his failure to prevent atrocities and sexual attacks on women in Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur and Assam. I ask why only one accused was killed in the encounter in Assam?”
Banerjee said the BJP was making such a demand because it had faced continuous defeat in elections and it knew it would not be able to win in the future too.
He said, “Many trains are running late. From railways to CBI and ED, everything is being controlled by the BJP.”
Banerjee alleged that the BJP was “committing cyber crimes on a large scale using AI which is causing social unrest”.
Regarding the march to the state secretariat Nabanna on Tuesday, the Chief Minister said,
“The police acted with restraint despite the provocation of BJP-backed organisations who wanted to kill. The police did not succumb to provocation despite suffering physical injuries and bleeding in the attacks on them.”
He said every attacker will be identified and action will be taken.
The BJP called for a ‘Bengal Bandh’ on Wednesday to protest against the police action on Tuesday against those participating in the ‘Nabanna Abhiyan’. The march was taken out to the State Secretariat (Nabanna) to demand the resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the incident at Kolkata’s RG Kar Hospital. The march was organised by the newly formed student group ‘Chhatra Samaj’.
