Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee Urges PM Modi for Stringent Anti-Rape Legislation Amid Nationwide Outrage

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi pleading for the introduction of strong laws to arrest the rising incidents of rape across India. Her desperate appeal follows the gang rape and murder of a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor at Kolkata's RG Kar Hospital, which has incited national outrage against her government's handling of the case.

In a letter to PM Modi, Ms. Banerjee expressed deep concern over the alarming frequency of rape cases across the country. "According to the available data, it is horrifying to see that almost 90 cases of rapes occur daily throughout the country," she wrote. She said there was a need for taking "firm action", and therefore, the Centre should enact a law with severity in punishment for the convicted in such heinous crimes. Banerjee additionally opined that special fast-track courts should be established to ensure proper action is taken at the earliest, where the trial is completed within 15 days.

This is coming at a time when the Banerjee administration has been constantly battered concerning the RG Kar Hospital case, with the Supreme Court also stepping in to ask how the state failed to manage the situation when the hospital was vandalised following the incident. The court's comments have only piled on the pressure on Banerjee's government, already accused of mishandling both the probe and the fallout.

She accused the opposition of instigating the trouble at the hospital and also blamed BJP and Left for trying to destroy evidence relating to the rape case. According to her, the rape incident is a deep conspiracy to destroy evidence against the rape incident and to topple her government. "Bam (Left) and Ram (BJP) want to create unrest in Bengal and they both have come together to do this," Banerjee said, coining the phrase "Ram and Bam" to describe the unlikely group.

The tragic incident that led to this political and social storm took place on August 9 when a post-graduate trainee doctor was allegedly raped and murdered while on duty at RG Kar Hospital. Her half-naked body was found in the seminar hall of the hospital, leading to chaos and a demand for punishment for the culprits. Though the police made the arrest of a civic volunteer the very next day, little did it pacify the agitator public, which kept pressuring to such an extent as to lead to the Calcutta High Court transferring the probe from the Kolkata Police to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

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