Resignation shakes Trinamool Congress

Jawahar Sircar’s resignation from the Rajya Saha unit underscores growing discontent in Bengal over the state’s response to crimes against women

Jawahar Sircar, Trinamool Congress member in the Rajya Sabha and former leader of Prasar Bharati, has resigned from both Parliament and the party. Sircar tendered his resignation in protest against the “mishandling” of the rape and murder case of a junior doctor at RG Kar Medical in Kolkata. The resignation is significant as Sircar is part of the “Kolkata Bhahdralok” which has so far remained steadfast in its support of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The move also shows that the passage of a “very strict anti-rape law” by the West Bengal Parliament has not made much impression on the people, who have so far refused to condone the Mamata government’s blunders in the matter.

The West Bengal Bill, now forwarded by the Governor to the President, has also found little resonance outside the state. The Aparajita Woman and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2024, passed by the West Bengal Assembly, is not the first of its kind. In the last five years, Andhra Pradesh (Disha) and Maharashtra (Shakti) passed similar bills with a death penalty clause for rapists, but they have not brought any changes in the matter yet. All these bills were preceded by the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, which introduced the death penalty for rape in the Indian Penal Code.

This followed public outrage over the brutal gang rape and murder of a woman in a moving bus in Delhi on December 16, 2012, which shook the collective conscience of the nation. Parliament passed the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 to allow death penalty in rape cases if the accompanying brutality results in death or leaves the victim in a persistent vegetative state. Whatever you call Aparajita, Disha or Shakti, these laws are meaningless as long as rape cases remain pending in court for years. In 2022, the courts had about 200,000 cases for trial, including the cases of previous years. However, the trials could be completed in only a little over 18,000 cases, which was less than the number of incidents and chargesheets filed that year. Finally, a conviction rate of 27.4% in rape cases means that seven out of 10 accused were acquitted. So simply making laws is of no use. At an event a few months ago, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud quoted BR Ambedkar as saying, “However bad a Constitution may be, it can turn out to be good if those responsible for its functioning happen to be good people.” The framer of the Constitution had said in his final speech to the Constituent Assembly, “However good a Constitution may be, it is sure to turn out to be bad, because those who are supposed to implement it happen to be good people. How bad a Constitution may be, it can turn out to be good if those who are supposed to implement it happen to be good people.

The Constitution can only provide for the organs of the state such as the legislative, executive and judiciary. The factors on which the working of these organs of the state depends are the people and the political parties who form them as instruments to implement their desires and policies. “If rapes do not stop in this country or if the anti-rape laws prove ineffective in punishing the rapists, it is a failure of culture rather than of law. Our society is not very accommodating in meeting the sufferings of a rape victim and in most cases the survivor and the family are subjected to terrible humiliation. Those entrusted with the implementation of the Constitution must possess the spirit of public service and not political opportunism. There is a recent case study conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Police in Ghaziabad district which reinforces the above premise. There is an existing government policy to set up Pink Police Outposts under every police station.

The rules were in place, but not much was done beyond the usual programme launch with much fanfare. However, last year, Ghaziabad police decided to implement the programme in mission mode and in September 2023, 20 ‘Pink Booths’ were set up, manned exclusively by women police officers.

A year later, the results were there for all to see. Just the presence of an organisation working for women’s safety had an impact. According to the data released by the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems of the Uttar Pradesh Police, the number of crimes against women, including dowry murder, dowry-related cases, sexual harassment, rape and kidnapping, fell by about 24 per cent. The biggest fall of over 36 per cent was in dowry murder, which at least enabled women to stay in their homes. If such an initiative by the Ghaziabad police can produce such results, one is sure that at the state level, such steps can be taken more effectively. One is not sure how effectively these pink police posts are functioning in West Bengal, where the government has just enacted a stricter anti-rape law.

(Sidharth Mishra is a writer and President of the Centre for Reforms, Development and Justice; his views are personal)