Is Kolkata’s RG Kar Hospital Stir Bengal’s ‘Main Bhi Anna’ Moment & Can BJP Use It to Its Advantage?

Anna Hazare’s Jan Lokpal movement against the UPA government at the Centre brought the young and old alike to Jantar Mantar and later Ramlila Maidan, much like what happened on Wednesday night when people — particularly women of Bengal from as young as a toddler to a septuagenarian — came out against the gruesome rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor by a suspected civic volunteer — the para-police of Bengal.

Those who have lived the Delhi of 2011 and Kolkata of 2024 would easily point to the uncanny similarity between the two. Both ignited national response, both were driven by the civic society, not any political outfit, and both felt wronged by the system.

In 2011, and later as well, ‘Mai Bhi Anna’ became the rallying cry where caps with this slogan would be worn by countless Indians, each of whom was considered to be a force multiplier of the social reformist who quickly captured the imagination of a generation that never experienced anything like this before. 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 was against corruption and another against alleged cover-ups in a sensational rape and murder case, angst in both cases was directed against the sitting government.

The Congress-ruled UPA had to weather tough times when senior ministers like Pranab Mukherjee were pressed into action to broker peace, albeit unsuccessfully. Now, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee herself has tried to douse the fire and probably for the first time hinted she was open to a CBI probe before the Calcutta High Court transferred the investigation to the central agency.

In hindsight, one would say the BJP politically exploited the Anna movement to its benefit by amplifying corruption charges brought by India Against Corruption (the body that was steering the Anna movement) against the Congress, every second day. The BJP’s 2014 Lok Sabha election tone was set by the Anna movement. From releasing the ‘most corrupt list’ to doing ‘exposes’ on a variety of alleged scams, the Anna movement in more ways than one pre-decided Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s key election promise — ‘Achhe Din’.

But with the Kolkata rape attaining similar stature in public imagination and the Bengal assembly election just two years away, what is the BJP up to?

The party has held regular dharnas, involved the Mahila Morcha for a planned march till Banerjee’s residence, held midnight protests, and conducted multiple press conferences across India by different leaders while staying away from directly joining the doctors’ stir at the RG Kar Hospital to sustain its apolitical nature and hence its legitimacy.

BJP state chief Sukanta Majumdar shot off a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, asking for a probe on the midnight vandalism and violence at the hospital, while the prime minister — speaking from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Independence Day — mentioned women’s security issues without naming any incident.

“We need to stop atrocities on our women. People are angered by what is happening to women across the country. All of us need to take this issue seriously, both at the state and central level. Action needs to be quick and swift and media must highlight the punishment given to the perpetrators so that it can act as a deterrent,” PM Modi said, expressing his pain over the rising crimes against women, less than 12 hours after the Kolkata vandalism.

What the BJP intends primarily is to make a dent in the women voters who have been standing rock solid with the Trinamool Congress. The discourse over Sandeshkhali seems not to have impacted the TMC as it won 29 seats. But the BJP is betting big on this as it is convinced the connection Bengal’s 3.73 crore voters can feel with a young doctor in Kolkata’s reputed hospital being raped and killed by a civic volunteer is much higher than a connect they would feel with women in an island whose versions also kept changing.

The victim feels like the girl next door — a familiarity that made many women and men come out to the streets to “reclaim the night” in a spontaneous social media-driven call.