Victims feel like the girl next door—a familiarity that makes many women and men hit the streets to “reclaim the night” with spontaneous social media-driven calls. (PTI)
What the BJP mainly wants is to create women voters who have stood solidly with the Trinamool Congress.
It was 2011 when a frail old man from Maharashtra, wearing a white cap and surrounded by a handful of idealistic individuals – many of whom went on to become successful politicians – captured India’s imagination.
Anna Hazare’s Jan Lokpal movement against the UPA government at the Center brought young and old to Jantar Mantar and later Ramlila Maidan, as happened on Wednesday night when people – especially Bengali women from childhood to septuagenarians – came out against the gruesome rape and killing of 31 doctors. year by suspected civilian volunteers – the Bengal police.
People who have lived in Delhi in 2011 and Kolkata in 2024 can easily point out the unmistakable similarities between the two. Both sparked a national response, both were driven by civil society, not political outfits, and both felt wronged by the system.
In 2011, and later also, ‘Mai Bhi Anna’ became a rallying rally where the cover with this slogan will be worn by countless Indians, each of which is considered as a force multiplier of social reformers who quickly captured the imagination of a generation that has never experienced this previous. In 2024, ‘We Want Justice’ became the rallying slogan from Bengal’s Alipurduar to Kolkata’s Jadavpur and Mumbai’s Lokhandwala to Delhi’s AIIMS.
While one is against corruption and the other is against the alleged cover-up of sensational rape and murder cases, in both cases it is aimed at the sitting government.
The Congress-ruled UPA had to go through a tough time when senior ministers like Pranab Mukherjee were pressured to make peace, albeit unsuccessfully. Now, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee herself has tried to put out the fire and may have hinted for the first time that she is opening a CBI probe before the Calcutta High Court transfers the investigation to the central agency.
Come to think of it, one would say that the BJP is exploiting the Anna movement politically for its benefit by exaggerating the corruption allegations leveled by India Against Corruption (the body leading the Anna movement) against the Congress, twice a day. The tone of BJP’s 2014 Lok Sabha elections was set by the Anna movement. From releasing the ‘most corrupt list’ to doing ‘exposing’ on various alleged scams, Anna’s movement in other ways than one pre-decided Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s main election promise – ‘Achhe Din’.
But with the Kolkata rape the equivalent of the public imagination and the Bengal Assembly elections just two years away, what does the BJP want?
The party has held regular dharnas, joined the Mahila Morcha for a planned march to Banerjee’s house, staged midnight protests, and held several press conferences across India by different leaders while not immediately joining the doctors at RG Hospital. Kar to keep. apolitical nature and hence legitimacy.
BJP state chief Sukanta Majumdar shot off a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, demanding an inquiry into midnight vandalism and hospital violence, while the prime minister – speaking from the Red Fort on Independence Day – cited women’s safety. problem without mentioning any incident.
“We must stop the brutality against our women. People are outraged by what is happening to women across the country. All of us must take this issue seriously, at the state and central levels. Action must be quick and swift and the media must highlight the punishment given to the perpetrators so they can act as deterrents,” PM Modi said, expressing pain over the increasing number of crimes against women, less than 12 hours after the Kolkata vandalism.
What the BJP mainly wants is to create women voters who have stood solidly with the Trinamool Congress. The discourse on Sandeshkhali did not seem to affect the TMC as it won 29 seats. But the BJP is betting big on this because it believes the connection Bengal’s 3.73 crore voters can feel with a young doctor in a notorious Kolkata hospital who was raped and killed by civilian volunteers is higher than the connection they would feel with a woman on an island. which version also keeps changing.
The victim feels like the girl next door – a familiarity that makes many women and men go out on the streets to “reclaim the night” with the spontaneous call of social media.
