The West Bengal government will convene an Assembly session next week to pass a bill that prescribes capital punishment for those accused of rape, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Wednesday, reported The Hindu.
“We will send this bill to the governor [CV Ananda Bose],” Banerjee said, according to The Hindu. “If he does not pass it, we will sit outside Raj Bhavan. This bill must be passed and he cannot evade accountability this time.”
The Trinamool Congress leader was speaking at an event to mark the foundation day of the party’s student wing.
This came a day after the Kolkata Police used batons, tear gas and water cannons to disperse protestors calling for Banerjee to resign. The demand was triggered by allegations that her government tried to cover up details about the rape and murder of a resident doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital this month.
The Bharatiya Janata Party called for a 12-hour general strike across the state on Wednesday to protest the police action. The Hindutva party’s workers clashed with police personnel in parts of West Bengal as they tried to implement the bandh, reported The Times of India.
“We have dedicated this day to the RG Kar doctor,” Banerjee said on Wednesday. “We want justice but BJP today called for a bandh. They don’t want justice, they are only trying to defame Bengal.”
West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose also criticised the state police’s use of force against protestors. “What we saw on the streets of Kolkata is the worst that one can expect from a democratically elected government,” he was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.
‘Will move anti-rape bill in Lok Sabha,’ says TMC
Trinamool Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday demanded that the Centre pass a law to ensure timely justice for victims of rape, failing which he would move a private member’s bill in Parliament, reported The Indian Express.
“If time-bound legislation is not passed by the Centre in the next three to four months pertaining to crimes against women, we will take our movement to Delhi and common citizens will hit the streets,” he said. “If the Centre does not pass an anti-rape law and time-bound legislation, I will move this via a private member’s bill.”
Abhishek Banerjee also cited data from the National Crime Records Bureau to claim that Uttar Pradesh had reported the highest number of crimes against women in the last 10 years, followed by Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
These states are presently being governed by the BJP.
“Why is there no call for the resignation of the chief ministers of these four states?” he asked. “I dare the BJP to demand the resignation of chief ministers of these states.”
President ‘dismayed and horrified’
President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday wrote in an article for PTI, stating that she was “dismayed and horrified” by the Kolkata rape and murder.
Murmu also condemned the “obnoxious collective amnesia” that facilitates the harassment, brutalisation and killing of women, saying that no civilised society can allow daughters and sisters to be subjected to such atrocities. “The nation is bound to be outraged, and so am I,” she said.
The president also referred to other recent crimes against women that have been reported from Uttarakhand and Maharashtra, as well as the sexual misconduct allegations that have levelled against several men in the Malayalam film industry.
“Even as students, doctors, and citizens protested in Kolkata, criminals continued their activities elsewhere,” Murmu wrote.
Also read:
- Has rape outrage brought us to a dead end?
- How CCTV footage helped nab the accused in the Kolkata rape and murder case
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