Calcutta Law College gang rape: TMC leaders expose Mamata’s misgovernance

Kolkata: The past week in West Bengal has been nothing short of a political theatre of the absurd, with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) descending into public infighting over one of the most sensitive issues, gang rape. 

What should have been an occasion for empathy, justice, and responsible leadership has instead turned into an embarrassing spectacle, exposing the party’s deep-rooted lack of accountability and a shocking disregard for survivors of sexual violence.

The trigger for this latest round of controversy was the appalling gang rape of a law student from South Calcutta Law College. Instead of responding with clarity, compassion, and a commitment to systemic change, two senior TMC leaders, MP Kalyan Banerjee and MLA Madan Mitra, offered statements that not only trivialised the survivor’s trauma but veered dangerously close to victim-blaming.

Mitra, a veteran MLA, outrageously suggested that the crime would not have happened if the student had not gone alone, or had taken friends with her, or informed someone before heading out. 

“If that girl had not gone there, this incident wouldn’t have happened,” he said, as if the onus of safety lies squarely with the victim rather than with those who perpetrate such heinous acts.

Kalyan Banerjee, meanwhile, chose to question the very possibility of security in cases where “a friend rapes a friend,” apparently absolving the state of its duty to ensure public safety even within educational spaces. His remarks, “If a friend rapes a friend, how can you ensure security? Will the police be there in schools?”, betray not just a lack of empathy, but also a defeatist attitude unbecoming of a public representative.

TMC’s official X (Twitter) handle hurriedly distanced itself from both Banerjee and Mitra, calling their comments “personal” and reiterating the party’s condemnation. 

Banerjee took to social media to accuse the party itself of indirectly shielding those protecting the accused, questioning the moral and intellectual alignment of party leadership, and alluding to rot within TMC’s own ranks, claiming that “some of the leaders who emerged after 2011 are themselves under question in such crimes.”

Mitra, for his part, claimed his words had been misrepresented by a “motivated group” intent on tarnishing the party’s image. The party, instead of taking decisive action or owning up to its internal contradictions, seemed content to watch the drama play out in public view.

This spectacle is an insult to the survivor, her family, and every woman in Bengal who looks to elected leaders for reassurance, not rhetoric. When senior leaders indulge in blame-shifting, victim-shaming, and open mudslinging, it signals a breakdown of moral leadership of Mamata Banerjee. 

Instead of focusing on accountability and justice, the ruling party has chosen to air its dirty linen in public, dragging the conversation away from the real issue: the state’s inability to guarantee safety for its citizens.

When will Bengalis rise?

This is hardly the first time TMC has been embroiled in controversy over handling sexual assault cases. The RG Kar Medical College rape case remains a blot on the state’s conscience. 

In that case, too, political leaders were accused of downplaying the incident and failing to ensure a transparent, victim-centric probe. The lack of sensitivity and a propensity to trivialise such crimes have become recurring themes, undermining public trust in the system.

Both the South Calcutta Law College case and the RG Kar case reveal a disturbing pattern: a culture of denial, deflection, and abdication of responsibility at the highest levels. 

While Mamata Banerjee projects herself as a champion of the people, her party’s handling of these incidents sends the opposite message. Public quarrels, attempts to wash hands off responsibility, and a lack of coherent, survivor-centric action plans only deepen public cynicism.

The real tragedy here is not just the crime itself, but the ruling party’s inability to provide moral or administrative leadership in its aftermath. When leaders stoop to blame victims or each other, rather than address the rot within their own ranks and the system at large, they forfeit their right to govern.

For Bengal’s women and girls, the message is chilling: In Mamata Banerjee’s Bengal, even your trauma can be turned into political theatre, and justice is always a casualty of political ego.

The state deserves better. So do its survivors.