On the day the Centre’s Home Ministry informed the Supreme Court that West Bengal authorities are creating an obstacle in the deployment of CISF personnel at RGKar Hospital, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s government got the Aparajita Woman and Child Bill passed in the Assembly with the support of the BJP. The Bill provides for death penalty for those convicted in rape cases where the victim dies or is permanently paralysed, life imprisonment in rape and gangrape cases, life imprisonment or death penalty for repeat offenders in rape cases, completion of investigation within 21 days with a possible extension of 15 days, setting up of 52 special courts, setting up of a task force on Aparajita Woman and Child in districts headed by a DSP and jail or fine for unauthorised publication of court proceedings in rape cases.
The BJP pushed for seven amendments providing for severe punishments for police officers who refused to file rape-related complaints, for doctors who deliberately caused negligence or delayed post-mortems, or for investigators who destroyed vital evidence, but these amendments were rejected. In her response, Mamata Banerjee made a political speech demanding the resignation of BJP chief ministers in whose states heinous crimes of rape and murder have been committed. Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan challenged Mamata to get Shahjahan Sheikh, the prime accused of rapes of women in Sandeshkhali, convicted under the new law. The protesting hospital doctors said that merely changing the law would not be enough, but strict implementation was the key.
Doctors said Mamata Banerjee had brought this new law only after her party got scared following the protests. Doctors at RGKar Hospital and other hospitals in Kolkata are not political party workers and their comments need to be studied carefully. In 2012, a severe anti-rape law was enacted after the infamous Nirbhaya rape and murder incident in Delhi and the POCSO Act was created to bring justice to children who had been sexually abused. There are other such laws. Doctors are right when they say that sincere implementation of the anti-rape law is the key. Mamata Banerjee’s government must regain people’s trust in the system. No doubt, Mamata has prepared a strong anti-rape law and if implemented honestly, it can pave the way for giving severe punishment to rapists and murderers. Criminals will start getting scared only when two or four rapists and murderers are sentenced to death without any delay. It is not correct on the part of the BJP to say that Mamata has brought this bill out of compulsion. The fact is that the BJP itself supported this bill out of political compulsion.
It would have been better if Mamata had confined her speech to the issue of women’s safety instead of lashing out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was only when she attacked Modi that Shivraj Singh Chouhan had to remind her about Shahjahan Sheikh, the dreaded chief of Sandeshkhali, where women still live in fear at night.
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