Kolkata shame spurs BJP protests, exposes hypocrisy

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: The August 9 rape and murder of a duty doctor at the RG Kar Hospital in Kolkata has drawn outrage but it has also become a political battleground riddled with hypocrisies.

The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) acted less than honourably, trying and failing to accommodate principal Dr Sandeep Ghosh as the head of the National Medical College. There were also initial attempts to try to pass the incident off as suicide.

The principal Opposition in West Bengal, the BJP, has taken out protests with Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling for strict punishment of the culprits.

However, the saffron party has laid bare its double standards on sexual violence. Here are the times BJP failed sexual assault victims:

Support for Prajwal, Brij Bhushan

On April 14, 2024, PM Modi held a rally in Mysuru and asked people to vote for Prajwal Revanna, the Lok Sabha candidate from Hassan fielded by the JD(S), BJP’s ally. From April 22 to 25, pen drives containing videos of Prajwal allegedly raping scores of women flooded Hassan, which went to polls the next day.

On April 27, Prajwal fled the country. On May 31, he came back to Bengaluru and was arrested. An investigation is underway.

Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief and former BJP MP from Kaiserganj Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh was accused by women wrestlers Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and others of sexual misconduct and harassment over a 10-year period.

Phogat, Malik and fellow wrestler Bajrang Punia staged a sitin in 2023 against Singh. He was made to quit as WFI chief in December 2023. His son Karan Bhushan Singh contested successfully from Kaiserganj in 2024. 

Hathras horror relived

On September 14, 2020, a 19-year-old Dalit girl was raped by four upper caste Thakur men in the fields of a Boolgarhi village in Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh.

The victim, who had been in a mutilated state, was rushed to the local Chandpa police station, where cops were reluctant to file an FIR. She was then moved to the district hospital but was referred to Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC) and hospital in Aligarh, where she received treatment for two weeks.

However, she succumbed to her injuries on September 29. The victim’s family claimed that she was cremated without her parents’ consent. She alleged rape in her statements and an autopsy confirmed it. The BJP State government faced protests over it.

In March 2023, three of the four men were acquitted and the fourth was convicted of only culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

Sengar convicted

Former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was convicted for the rape of a 17-year-old Dalit girl in Unnao city in Uttar Pradesh on December 16, 2019.

On June 4, 2017, the girl was called to Sengar’s residence on the pretext of getting her a job. The victim was then left in a village in Auraiya district. She was brought back to Unnao and attempts to name Sengar and his brother Atul were resisted by the local police.

Victim’s brother was also beaten up. On April 8, 2018, the woman and her kin tried to immolate themselves outside the UP CM’s residence, bringing the case to prominence.

RELEASED BILKIS BANO’S TORMENTORS

On August 15, 2022, the BJP State government, backed by the Modi regime, approved the release of 11 men convicted of raping a pregnant Bilkis Bano and murdering her kin in March 2002 in Randhikpur village of Limkheda taluk in Dohad district in Gujarat.

More than 2,000 persons, mostly Muslims, had been killed in the pogroms. In 2008, a court had sentenced the 11 to life imprisonment. However, the men were released on account of an old remission policy, which grants relief to persons convicted of serious crimes.

However, in January 2024, the Supreme Court (SC) restored their life sentences.