Oh Calcutta! – How you have fallen!

Today, my mother said something which shook me to the core. She said, “Thank God that you studied in Calcutta twenty-five years earlier. Had you been studying there now; I would not have been able to even sleep at night… would have kept worrying about you being safe in that city”.

Flashback to 25 years earlier: when I, as a naïve twenty-year-old, got admission in Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. Having led a sheltered life as an Army Officer’s daughter, my parents were obviously worried about me – moving away from home to live in a hostel, that too in a city where we did not know anyone. But they were heartened by the fact that I was moving to Calcutta, which was known as a city where women were respected and were, in fact, assumed to be more empowered than many other regions of India.

How did that city of empowered women and cultured men, the city of Rabindra sangeet and bhadralok, degenerate into a city infamous for its goons, hooligans and tyranny? Did the citizens of Calcutta let down the city… or did the leaders of West Bengal let down the citizens who voted for them?

The horrific rape and murder of a young doctor in metropolitan city of Calcutta on 9 August has shaken the collective consciousness of the nation. The brutality of the murder, the extent of patronage that the assailants appear to enjoy and the allegations of the State machinery being (mis)used to derail the probe, have all been mentioned multiple times in diverse media.

 

As expected, the political fraternity has reacted in an extremely selective manner. The Chief Minister of West Bengal, who is also the Health Minister is part of a protest march, but against whom? As the head of the state, accountability lies with agencies under her control.

A mob vandalized the hospital on 15 August, and it is believed that this was a planned move to destroy evidence. The ruling party in West Bengal has accused other parties of encouraging this mob, though media reports allege that the goons in the mob are affiliated to the ruling State party. The INDI Alliance which is the first to make allegations (whether true or false) to embarrass the BJP, has been conveniently quiet on this brutal rape and premediated murder of a young intern.

A prominent leader of the Congress (whose claim to fame rests on her maiden surname) had (un)successfully tried to woo the women votes with her claims of being a woman and a fighter – ‘ladki hoon, lad sakti hoon’. She, too, is quiet… at a time when as a woman, as a leader, as a public figure, she should have been one of the most vocal voices asking for justice for the young life killed.

The travesty of justice that is being played out in Calcutta is sickening. It has been more than a week since the young doctor was killed, and yet all we have seen are politically motivated statements, attempts to project a gruesome murder as suicide, inept investigations, allegations of the R G Kar Medical College being involved in organ trade and more. There does not seem to be any sign of professional investigations, with an intention to bring the actual culprits to justice.

 

But maybe this is to be expected – after all, isn’t West Bengal the state of the Sandeshkhali rapes? Isn’t West Bengal the state where kangaroo courts, ostensibly based on Sharia law, are being held as recently as July 2024? These are well known and well publicized events, yet there has been no corrective action or redressal done.

A rich, proud culturally inclined society is morphing into one which is insular, intolerant and violent. A society where 100-year-old Durga Puja celebrations are forcibly being stopped, where Hindus are being systematically targeted and where land grabbing by political goons is the norm, no longer appears to be the land that birthed Geetanjali, Dokra art, Sholapith and Kantha.

A city where my parents felt that I would be safe two and a half decades earlier… ‘thank God, you have got admission in Calcutta’ has become the new Wild West of India – a land of lawlessness, tyranny and injustice. Nothing illustrates the denigration of West Bengal and Calcutta better than the meme doing the rounds of social media (see below).

If the people of West Bengal – rural and urban alike, do not even heed these warning signs and demand change, then the free fall and denigration will continue. The change must come from within, and it is the citizens of the state that need to exercise their right to good governance, law and order. Otherwise, such incidents will continue without restraints, there will be social media outrage, a few candle marches… and life will go on, till the next rape and murder.

Article by



Aditi Hingu

Aditi has more than two decades of experience in the corporate world. She works as a strategic marketing consultant and has done projects across innovation, category & brand development, communication, media and research for Indian and Multinational companies. She has also significant experience in coaching and training across diverse functions.