The Bengal Opposition on Friday tore into the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress dispensation, demanding her resignation as chief minister in the wake of the alleged gang-rape of a law student inside the state-run law college at Kasba here.

At least one of the perpetrators — main accused Manojit Mishra — had a Trinamool connection, as he was a leader of the party’s student wing in the college in the past. However, the TMC said Mishra had no connection with the party at least since 2022.

ADVERTISEMENT

The incident prompted parallels with the grisly rape and murder of the junior doctor in R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital last year, as wave after wave of protests, by the student and youth organisations of the CPM and the BJP, and supporters of the Congress crashed onto police barricades and batons by the Kasba police station, barely 700m from the scene of the crime.

All three main forces in the Opposition have planned wider, more intense agitation programmes over the weekend to try and push the ruling Trinamool deeper.

The leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, said Mamata must go.

“This chief minister, also the home minister of the state, has no right to continue in the chair. She must resign,” said Adhikari.

“This incident is not just a crime; it is a glaring proof of the Trinamool Congress’s student organisation leaders tarnishing the sanctity of educational institutions,” the BJP leader added in a statement in Bengali on X.

“A college campus, a sacred place where students come to acquire knowledge, witnessing such brutality is shameful for our society. Trinamool’s student leaders have repeatedly misused their power to create an atmosphere of fear and anarchy in educational institutions,” he wrote, demanding the harshest punishment for the accused, regardless of their political affiliations.

CPM central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said he was stunned by the incident.

“Since R.G. Kar, the rampant culture of rape… now at the South Calcutta Law College (Kasba) campus. Where is campus safety?” he asked.

“Colleges have no elected student councils. Forceful occupiers, the lumpen, criminals and extortionists of the ruling dispensation reign unchallenged. The police are their slaves,” added Chakraborty. “Education, culture, safety… all are being destroyed by the ruling party’s malicious influence in this state.”

Congress state president Subhankar Sarkar said there was no alternative to Mamata’s resignation. Congress working committee member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said it was yet another instance of the alleged neo-normal in Bengal ruled by the Trinamool ecosystem, where even the most heinous crimes — if committed by those with links to the ruling dispensation — could be gotten away with.

“You (Mamata) need nothing but votes, and that priority is reflected in every sphere of administration and governance by your party…. We are running out of words to condemn this with adequate intensity. Every campus is forcefully occupied by Trinamool and none other, and their people believe they have a fully free hand in this regime,” he said.

“Only one woman is safe in Bengal, that is Mamata Banerjee,” added Chowdhury.

Trinamool underscored prompt police action and distanced itself from the main accused. The TMC demanded answers on why the Aparajita Woman and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws and Amendment) Bill 2024 had been lying with President Droupadi Murmu for her assent since September last year.

“Police took action within 12 hours of knowing about the incident. Three people, who were accused of the crime by the victim, were immediately arrested and put behind bars. The woman’s statement has been recorded,” said women and child welfare minister Shashi Panja.

“There are no words to condemn such a heinous crime, but we want to tell her that those who carried out this barbarity against her were arrested immediately, and a probe is underway. We want the woman to receive justice, and we stand with her…. There will be a thorough investigation and the culprits will receive the strictest punishment,” she added.

“It will be a crime to politicise the matter as is being done by a politically bankrupt party (the BJP)…. A woman’s body is not your political battlefield. Respect women…. The Bengal government neither endorses violence against women nor extends respect to perpetrators. We all know which party does that.”