Justice, a Gender Audit, Mamata's Resignation: Who Is Asking for What in the R.G. Kar Protests

Kolkata: Several protests are afoot in Kolkata and Bengal against the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at a city hospital. Her body was discovered on August 9. Since then, political parties, the victim’s colleagues and juniors, activists, students, workers and children have walked in rallies and sat in dharnas. Common to most of them is the chant, “we want justice”, which is understood to give voice to a larger anger against gender injustice and also the Trinamool Congress-led state government.

While these protests have seen shows of unity like no other, and although all agitators have called for punishment for the crime’s perpetrators, there are subtle differences in their other demands.

Here is a primer of who is asking for what and how.

Junior doctors

The group that has been occupying headlines most recently is the junior doctors of the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital. Closest to the victim and most frustrated by the alleged systemic corruption at the institution, the doctors are calling for pointed changes in the way things are run. They have also highlighted major flaws in the way the crime was initially handled.

Many of them told news outlets, including The Wire, that glaring gaps in security have consistently made them feel unsafe at their place of work.

The state government has maintained that their cease-work has led to a severe crumbling of the service system at R.G. Kar, with state counsel Kapil Sibal claiming in court that 27 people have died. While some news reports have noted that patients are indeed suffering, there is no independent confirmation of the number of deaths directly as a result of the cease-work.

A day after the Supreme Court asked the junior doctors to rejoin work, the doctors on September 10 moved their site of protest from the hospital premises to the Swasthya Bhavan, the health department building, demanding the chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, heed their demands by 5 pm – the court-given time by which they had to resume work. Local media has it that the number of doctors gathered at Swasthya Bhavan is over a thousand.

They have asked for punishment for those involved in the August 9 crime, disciplinary action against former RG Kar principal Sandip Ghosh who is now in CBI custody, removal of top police officials including Commissioner Vineet Goyal, better security for healthcare workers, and an end to corruption, bullying and threats in government medical education and care institutions.

The doctors have asked that any meeting with the chief minister be telecast live – something Banerjee has not agreed to. On September 12, she posted images on social media showing her sitting alone in a room where discussions were to have taken place, but did not because the doctors did not agree to the “no televising” stipulation. The Bengal government has said that because the crime is now subjudice, talks cannot be livestreamed. Doctors who had arrived at the secretariat, left without meeting Banerjee.

In an address to the media afterwards, Banerjee claimed that the protesting doctors do not want justice but her “chair” and offered to resign if people so wanted.

September 13 marks the fourth day of the doctors’ sit-in. Amidst torrential rain today, a news report noted that the outpouring of support has led to a surplus of rations at the protest site.

BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party, the principal opposition party in the state, has been up in arms against the Banerjee government since the news broke. Out of the protesting bodies, the BJP has been the only one to have consistently demanded Banerjee’s resignation.

On August 27, a little known group called the ‘Chhatra Samaj’ called for a protest march to Nabanna. It quickly spiralled out of control, leading to fierce clashes with the police in parts of Kolkata. A Kolkata Police constable is learned to have lost vision in an eye after being hit in the skirmish. The Wire reported that although this was officially organised as a student protest, the march saw the participation of people from various districts in south Bengal, with many attendees wearing saffron tilaks and attire.

A day later, leaving little to imagination on the connections between the Chhatra Samaj and the BJP, the latter called for a 12-hour statewide strike during which key state leaders marched.

For the past 16 days, the party has been conducting a sit-in at Dharmatala in central Kolkata, calling for Banerjee’s resignation.

Though it has been vocal against the TMC government and kept the issue of women’s safety alive, BJP has had to contend with general distrust of local people on the issue. As a result, their rallies have had paltry attendance.

Some leaders also led a march to gherao the office of the North Division Deputy Commissioner, according to the Bengal BJP’s X account.

Reclaim the Night

The women-led ‘Reclaim the Night’ effort is agitating for overall gender justice. It was begun by social science researcher Rimjhim Sinha.

One of its organisers, Satabdi Das, wrote on The Wire that the event was triggered by R.G. Kar ex-principal Ghosh’s comments in the immediate aftermath of the discovery of the victim’s body. Ghosh had appeared to indicate that it was “irresponsible” of the victim “to have been alone at night.”

On the night of August 14 and 15, lakhs of women across Bengal gathered in a movement that also echoed across the country.

Since then, nightlong protests have happened a few times, most recently on September 8, seeing thousands of women participate.

The protesters want punishment for those who raped and killed the R.G. Kar victim and those who tried to cover it up, 24×7 government-run public transport so that women can travel safely, 24×7 toilets for women and trans/queer, government teams to look into the requirements of working women and a gender audit.

The Left

The Left parties across Bengal have been active in keeping the issue alive across Kolkata to pockets of rural Bengal and beyond. Three Left parties – the Students’ Federation of India, the Democratic Youth Federation of India, and the All India Democratic Women’s Association – have been conducting a sit-in at Shyambajar, in north Kolkata, since September 3.

As journalist Pratik has noted on The Wire, the Left’s mega rallies on the issue have seen extraordinary participation, even from among sections traditionally believed to be loyal to the TMC. The rally through the city’s arterial Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road on September 3 brought the city to a standstill but saw overwhelming participation.

Households across the city, and those already on the streets, turned off lights on that evening, and lit candles, plunging the city into darkness and extraordinary unseen scenes of solidarity.

Others

Especially over the weekends, several organic groups of institution alumni, rickshaw pullers, trade unions, food delivery workers, school students, school teachers and neighbourhood associations have also been marching calling for justice. They have conducted their planning over WhatsApp, balking at little other than rain. Women-led groups have formed human chains across kilometres.