What impact could the RG Kar protests have on Bengal politics?

Jhelum Roy was ebullient as she described the scene at Swashthya Bhaban, the office of health department of the West Bengal government. For over a month, hundreds of junior doctors had gathered outside the office to protest against the rape and murder of a medical student at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College on August 9. On Saturday, they ended their sit-in.

“It was not just the doctors’ protest,” Roy said. “Everyone contributed in their own way. A cucumber seller used to give away cucumbers for free every day at the protest site, a sweet seller did the same, people who live nearby gave us food and water.”

Roy was among the organisers of the “Reclaim the Night” campaign held across the state at midnight on August 14, when thousands of women marched through the streets in protest. Since then, many like Roy had collaborated with the doctors to organise demonstrations to press for their demands for a speedy investigation in the crime and that the state’s healthcare facilities be equipped with adequate security.

Roy said she was encouraged at the fact that demonstrations were even held at Sector 5 of Kolkata’s Salt Lake, the city’s information technology hub that has rarely seen agitations. But the RG Kar rape and murder seem to have struck a chord. Rickshaw pullers held rallies to demand justice, as did delivery executives of Swiggy and Zomato. In an unprecedented occurrence on August 18, fans of rival football clubs East Bengal and Mohun Bagan united to hold a demonstration.

All this showed that this was “a truly democratic movement where people crushed the binary of ruling party and Opposition”, Roy said. Debashish Haldar, a junior doctor at RG Kar, echoed this sentiment. “We did not allow flags of political parties at the protest site because this was a people’s movement,” he said.

Observers of Bengal politics said this aspect of the agitation was crucial. They said the protest was sustained for so long because it did not take place under the banner of a political party: this meant that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee could not discredit it as a conspiracy by Opposition parties.

But a lack of political leadership in the movement also meant that it could not grow to become a threat for the Trinamool Congress electorally, these observers said. Signficiantly, the civil society-led movement did not percolate into rural Bengal, from which the party draws its most significant support.

Pent-up anger

Despite the brutality of the rape and murder of the medical student, that incident alone was not the reason for public outrage. Trade union activist Anuradha Talwar told Scroll that the crime served as the trigger for resident to vent their frustration at systemic corruption in the state and impunity for such practices.

“That is why we saw such spontaneous protests because people wanted to say enough was enough,” Talwar said.

As the RG Kar administration came under the scanner for allegedly tampering with evidence in the case as well as financial irregularities in the operations of the medical college, two Trinamool Rajya Sabha MPs Jawhar Sircar and Sukhendu Sekhar Ray spoke up against mishandling of the incident.

On September 8, Sircar resigned as an MP, saying that the public anger was against “unchecked overbearing attitude of the favoured few and the corrupt”. He accused Banerjee of providing patronage to corrupt practices in RG Kar Medical College. “I have been asking her to get rid of the corrupt elements in the party but loyalty matters more to her than public sentiment,” Sircar told Scroll.

Though allegations of corruption against the Trinamool Congress are not new, they have not hurt the party electorally. After the 2021 state elections, when the party comfortably defeated an energised Bharatiya Janata Party, an analysis by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies found that even though 51% of the voters said that the party was involved in a lot of corruption, only 2% of them saw it as the single biggest election issue.

This was largely due to the personal appeal of the chief minister, said veteran journalist Monideepa Banerjie.

“After the series of corruption cases against Trinamool leaders like former ministers Partha Chatterjee and Jyotirmoy Mullick, that branding took a serious hit,” said Banerjie. “Now attempts by the health department to shield the RG Kar principal came as a last straw. When he resigned, instead of suspending or sacking him, how could they reinstate him as principal of the National Medical College?”

Journalist and author Snigdhendu Bhattacharya agreed that Banerjee faced an unprecedented challenge. “She is used to playing on a turf where she can pit herself against political opponents, and she wins those situations due to her popularity,” Bhattacharya said. “But here she was up against the civil society angered at a rape and murder case, so that strategy did not work.”

Nobody’s gain

However, the public outrage backed by civil society groups has been limited to Kolkata and nearby areas, experts said. It has failed to spread to rural Bengal.

Sabir Ahamed, the research coordinator of Kolkata-based non-profit Pratichi Institute told Scroll that in his interactions with rural Bengali women he found that many of them do not resonate with the slogans of the movement, and its expressions like blowing the conch and painting alpona designs on the streets.

“There is some anger of course, but sexual violence and corruption are not Bengal-specific issues, so people become tolerant to them” Ahamed said. “When it comes to elections, even women would vote for [cash transfer scheme] Lokkhir Bhandar over such issues.”

Under Lokkhir Bhandar, which has over two crore beneficiaries, the Trinamool government gives Rs 1,000 every month to women aged 25-60 years, belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes categories, and Rs 500 to women from other categories.

Ranjit Sur, general secretary of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights said that discontent in rural Bengal was essential in overthrowing a government. When agitations against land acquisition in Singur and Nandigram toppled the Left Front government in 2011, “it started as a peasants' movement and the civil society gave a call to other sections”, Sur said. “This time the urban class and civil society are at the forefront.”

Sur also pointed out that when the Trinamool came to power, it was able to string together almost all sections of society that saw Banerjee as an alternative to the Left. But during the RG Kar campaign, the primary Opposition party, the BJP, could not do the same thing because the protests were largely mobilised by groups that are aligned with progressive ideology.

“In a lot of other states, the BJP could have capitalised on the anger against the government, but the leftist legacy of civil society groups in Bengal have not allowed that,” he said.

However, this would not dent the Trinamool significantly. Journalist Bhattacharya said that a section of urban voters that had moved away from the Left Front and voted for the BJP as an alternative to the Trinamool could come back to the Communist parties. “But that would not hurt Mamata because the votes are shifting from one opposition party to another,” he said.

Bhattacharya added Banerjee's decision to remove senior police and health officials earlier this week had left the protests with little steam. “Once those demands were met, many felt that they had scored a point against Mamata,” said Bhattacharya. “But Mamata actually accepted defeat in a battle to win the war because the Opposition did not gain any political mileage against her.”

Warning signs

Rights activist Jhelum Roy said that the success of the movement should not be measured by its potential impact on elections. “Many have started seeing Mamata Banerjee as disconnected from public sentiment,” she said. “How else do you explain Durga Puja committees refusing government grants at a time when the chief minister is saying that people should call off protests and indulge in festivities?”

Others also said that Banerjee’s failure to curb urban anger could be an early warning for her. “If elections happen tomorrow, Mamata will win but there is a notable loss of confidence in Kolkata which not only is her operational headquarters, but also sets the stage for Bengal politics,” said Jawahar Sircar, the former MP.

Sur said that the RG Kar protests have weakened the stranglehold of the Trinamool cadre on public life in Bengal. “There has been a freeze on democratic expressions against the government,” he said. “The police would not take complaints, we would not get permission for public meetings due to fear of the lumpen forces of the Trinamool. That fear has been crushed and people have sent a strong message against the excesses.”