The brutal rape and murder of a junior woman doctor at R.G. Kar Medical College in Kolkata, in August 2024, has generated a historic people’s movement in West Bengal. Over the last two months, the ‘City of Joy’ has become a city of processions. People have been active in a variety of ways — women have gathered in large numbers at the stroke of midnight in urban localities across the State; lights have been switched off for some time as an expression of their solidarity with the demand for justice; slogans have been written and poetry recited on the streets, and the police and the administration have been challenged. But, more importantly, the movement has expressed a lack of trust in the Trinamool Congress-led government in the State, a party that won decisively just a few months ago in parliamentary seats in the 2024 general election.
People-government dynamics
As we write, the junior doctors are on a historic hunger strike on a 10-point charter of demands including ‘Justice for RG Kar’. Even during the Durga Pooja, thousands of people have participated in demonstrations in solidarity with the doctors. The movement began with junior doctors in R.G. Kar demanding justice for the victim. The slogans of the movement, ‘Justice for RG Kar’ and ‘We want Justice’, have practically become a part of the Bengali lexicon. A closer look at the movement shows that it has grown without the leadership of any political party. The element of spontaneity is unmissable. The people have made it clear that it is their movement and are unwilling to accept any political attempt to claim leadership or the moral high ground.
Why are the people, who just a few months ago, voted decisively for the Trinamool Congress, now on the streets demanding justice for a victim of rape and murder, when the State Chief Minister herself has time and again made the same demand and expressed solidarity with the movement? To understand this, we need to take a deeper look at the political economy of Trinamool Congress rule in the State, its relationship with the people in general, and the middle class and upper middle classes in particular.
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It is true that the movement is largely a movement of the middle and upper middle classes in West Bengal. An obvious reason is that the case is about a doctor on duty who was raped and murdered. Bengali upper, middle and lower class households attach great importance to education. Given that entrepreneurship is missing in the average Bengali, they are of the view that the upward mobility of the next generation is possible only through higher education, particularly of a technical kind. The rape and murder of the doctor is also a horrific incident under the jurisdiction of a government institution. It has shaken the middle class who now perceive that the dream of upward mobility can be shattered even after a child gets the best possible education.
A State’s economic decline, corruption
This perception of a serious threat to upward mobility and social position is not merely a result of this incident. Rather, this movement is also a culmination of growing frustration within the middle class about the economy of the State. The relative position of the State in India, in terms of GDP share, has been in steady decline for decades. The investment scenario has also witnessed similar decline. The employment situation in the State is precarious. But this was also true under the erstwhile Left Front government rule. However, the recruitment of school teachers and college professors through a somewhat transparent School and College Service Commission ensured a modicum of fairness in the system. But the Trinamool Congress government has destroyed this idea of fairness with rampant corruption in important government jobs.
In 2022, the incarceration of the erstwhile Education Minister in the School Service Commission scam showed the degree of involvement of top government functionaries in corruption. The arrest of top Ministers and Trinamool Congress leaders in various scams also showed how the system has become highly corrupt and susceptible to rigging by those in power. In the R.G. Kar case too, there are serious allegations of corruption against the former college principal and the presence of a corrupt syndicate operating in the health system. The R.G. Kar murder case is perceived by the people to be a result of this corrupt system. The CBI is also looking at this angle. Allegations of a cover-up by the police and the hospital administration have further strengthened the perception that the system is rigged by the ruling party and its supporters.
The corruption and extortion racket that exists in West Bengal must be seen in the context of the lack of capital investment and development. In the absence of regular inflows of new capital in the State, the ruling machinery’s source of finances is said to be outsourced to local leaders, who run their own fiefdoms and extract resources and money from the people at will. The violence during local elections in West Bengal is the result of these political lords trying to protect their ‘fiefdoms’ at any cost.
The top leadership of the Trinamool Congress grants, what political scientist Dwaipayan Bhattacharya calls ‘franchisees’ to these local lords, in return for votes and complete loyalty to the top leadership. Government schemes are used to politically manage this extortionist regime where active opposition to the ruling party might debar the poor from accessing the schemes. The large unorganised sector cannot operate without paying a ‘levy’ to the ruling party and gaining permission for business.
In other words, the system is based on extortion and corruption on the one hand and a distribution of public goods through the mediation of government and ruling party on the other. In this system of political management and extortion, the idea of ‘justice’ and fairness takes a beating. It is in this context that the word ‘justice’ becomes a crucible where people who have faced myriad injustices from the system gather with their discontent and express their dissatisfaction with the government.
The core of the protests
Is this the beginning of the end of the TMC government? The jury is still out on this. At this juncture a few observations can be made. First, this movement, as of now, remains non-partisan as it has not allowed any political party any space. The largest Opposition party in the State, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), tried and failed. The Left, for the time being, is going with the people’s sentiment and asking its cadres to participate in the movement wholeheartedly, without any one-upmanship. That people are not allowing the intervention of any Opposition party is also symbolic of ‘a no-confidence’ in them. The movement’s main slogan is ‘justice’ and not the ouster of the government. But the huge mass upsurge will have political and electoral ramifications. What direction this will take remains to be seen.
Second, while the movement has support within the rural and poor populations, they are yet to come out on to the streets in large numbers. This is not surprising given the dependence of the poor on the government and the ruling party for their livelihood. Any challenge to the ruling party by the poor may rob them of their source of livelihood. The poor are assessing the situation in terms of whether a credible alternative to the Trinamool Congress emerges. This also holds true for Muslims in the State. With the emergence of the BJP as the main Opposition party and the waning of the Left and the Congress, the Trinamool Congress has emerged as the option for them to keep the BJP out. It is true that Muslim voters are also victims of the corrupt syndicate raj created by the TMC. However, as long as a powerful secular alternative to the Trinamool Congress does not emerge, it is difficult for the Muslims to decisively move against the TMC.
In short, West Bengal is poised at a critical juncture. State Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her government are facing the most difficult political challenge. If it is proved that the police and government machinery were involved in destroying evidence and shielding the culprits, then the challenge for Ms. Banerjee will only increase. The people are resolute in their demand for justice. In this system of many injustices, the people, through their collective assertions, want to see ‘Justice for RG Kar’, in the hope that this will open up the long road to ‘Justice for all’.
Subhanil Chowdhury is an economist and editor of the Bengali journal Arek Rakam
Published – October 17, 2024 12:16 am IST
