By Air Cmde TK Chatterjee(retd)    

The unbelievable happened in the former City of Joy on 9th August. A lady doctor pursuing post-graduate studies at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital was brutally raped and murdered. This is a tragedy close to my heart because one, I belong to the city and two, I was born in that very hospital.

India as a country is quite used to rape cases.  According to the most recent data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), over 31,000 rape cases were registered in 2021, which averages to about 86 cases per day. These are only the reported cases. There may be so many more going unreported. So, the fact that rape and murder have taken place is not an earth-shaking phenomenon for the country. But that such a heinous crime took place at a hospital with a doctor on duty is certainly too painful to absorb. This is probably a first in the illustrious history of crime in the country.

What is exponentially more surprising than the occurrence of the crime was the way subsequent events panned out. I find so many similarities between the events that followed the Sushant Singh Rajput murder case in Mumbai and the murder of the lady doctor in Kolkata. In both cases, there was a desperate and concerted effort by the police and the state government to misguide the people and hush up the cases, which gave an obvious and explicit impression that someone vital was being protected by either.

Right now as I write there is a demand from the protesters in Bengal for the resignation of the Commissioner of Police of Kolkata for deliberate mishandling of the case. Is the police force in the country really so inefficient and morally so corrupt? I do not think so. I know very bright and intelligent officers in the Indian Police Service. They are after all selected to the service through one of the toughest selection systems in the world. Except when in their state cadres, they do a good job elsewhere. Besides being responsible for the law and order of their respective states, they also run the Special Protection Group responsible for the security of the Indian Prime Minister and the National Security Guard, a rapid action force for tackling any security-related national emergency. In J&K, they fight terrorism along with the Indian Army. If the same officers do a good job in the SPG and the NSG, why do they fail so miserably when posted to their state cadres?

Is it therefore the police who are inept, corrupt, dysfunctional, and villainous or is it the political system of the country that forces them to be so? I think the answer is known to all. Democracy has its pitfalls and this is perhaps one of the deepest. Today’s political system requires the support of those who are not on the right side of the law. These despicable elements of society are nurtured by the political system to win elections and be their troubleshooters.  So the police have to accept them and give them protection when these anti-socials resort to unlawful activities at the behest of their political masters.

Of course, the police hierarchies have the option to obey the political system or resign. The DGP or the CP will perhaps bring laurels to their cadre if even one of them, in any state of the country, dares to rather resign than follow the unlawful orders of their political masters. That kind of moral courage is yet to be seen in the police force of this country. This lack of moral fiber cascades down and affects the whole force. What we are seeing in Kolkata is an unfortunate manifestation of this cowardice in the IPS cadre.

The political system has degenerated to a level that is unfathomable by the common man. The craze for retaining power at any cost has overshadowed any sense of decency and righteousness in political life. In a multi-party system there will always be an opposition party to blame for any mishap in the country, be it the stock exchange, railway accidents, natural disasters, or plain cases of homicides, If one goes by the media reports, it appears that in every case of such natures everyone in the country knows who the culprits are, except the police and the Chief Executives of the state.

In the state of West Bengal, we are witnessing a horrific crime and its pathetic aftereffects. The protest against the corrupt system of hospital management spiraled up to a protest against the police and now against the Chief Minister of the state. It started as a local event, spread to the entire state, then to the entire country, and now beyond the shores of the country.

One does not expect any justice from the government of West Bengal and its compliant police force. They are in awful haste to consign the case as yet another statistic in the shameful rape and murder figures of the country. The only hope in this sordid saga is the judiciary. If the judiciary plays its role, as it is seen to play till now, and oversees that this case comes to its logical end, the nation would be grateful.

The unfortunate doctor is gone. No amount of justice or compensation will matter to her anymore. But the whole of the professional womenfolk of the country are following this case with the singular hope that their safety at the workplace and elsewhere will be ensured so that any more of them do not become victims at the altar of the financial and political greed of powers that be.

Let us pray that they are not disappointed.

The author is an Indian Air Force Veteran.

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