WB govt can’t wash off stains of its ineptitude

The West Bengal government’s ruthless handling of the protests in Kolkata against the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital rape-murder, which has roiled the entire country, shows how badly it has lost the plot on sensitive governance. On Wednesday, chief minister (CM) Mamata Banerjee dedicated the foundation day of the Trinamool Congress’s student wing to the victim of the crime and reiterated a call for justice for her and other women who have been subject to such crimes. But just the day before, the state police had tried to end a protest march comprising students, professionals, and even elderly residents of the city with water-cannons and batons — almost as if the Supreme Court, while taking up the matter suo motu, had never reminded it of the need to handle this moment of “national catharsis” with great sensitivity. The crackdown continued on Wednesday, when there were attempts to enforce a state-wide shutdown.

The CM also questioned the progress of the CBI probe, saying the state government had asked for five days to complete its investigation, but the probe was handed over to the central agency and the case has been pending for 16 days. She also accused rival political parties of spreading misinformation. However, the state administration has only itself to blame. The Supreme Court outlined enough instances of incompetent handling of the case by the state administration, from the delay in registering a case of unnatural death and the hours wasted between the death being recorded and the police securing the crime-scene to the college principal being shifted to another college even as his conduct in the aftermath of the case raised suspicion of a cover-up. The state, and the CM, have not offered substantive answers to any of these. Against this backdrop, promising capital punishment for such crimes, as Banerjee did on Wednesday, will do little to exorcise the failures haunting the state government.

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