'Kakima' in fray, rivals hold back their tongue in Panihati

Panihati: “I have nothing to say against Kakima (aunty),” Kalatan Dasgupta, the candidate of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Panihati, says. His rival, Tirthankar Ghosh of the Trinamool Congress, is all the more reticent and just says: “We all share the pain of Kakima.” 

Panihati on the bank of Hooghly in the North 24 Parganas district is perhaps the only constituency in poll-bound West Bengal, where both the TMC and the CPI(M) candidates are biting their tongues when it comes to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s pick.

For, the BJP has fielded no one else, but Ratna Debnath, the mother of the postgraduate trainee doctor who lived in Panihati with her parents before being raped and murdered at her workplace, the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, in Kolkata on August 9, 2024. The saffron party is obviously trying to rekindle and reap electoral dividends of the outrage, which had swept West Bengal for several weeks in the wake of the brutal rape and murder and had shaken the state’s TMC government led by Mamata Banerjee.

“I am fighting against Mamata Banerjee. I hold this corrupt government of the TMC responsible for the death of my daughter,” Ratna – the ‘kakima’ of Kalatan and Tirthankar – says. “I have joined politics to do my bit to uproot the TMC from West Bengal, not only to ensure the justice for my daughter, but also to free people of the state from the misrule of Mamata Banerjee.”

Kalatan Dasgupta

Kalatan was among the CPI(M) leaders who had rushed to the RGKMCH and stopped the police from taking away the body of ‘Abhaya’ – the pseudonym the victim came to be known by after being killed. It was the beginning of an unprecedented wave of protests by the doctors, other healthcare providers, theatre and film personalities, IT professionals, and countless other civil society organisations, not only against the rape and murder of the young doctor at a hospital run by the state government, but also against the corruption and the irregularities plaguing the public healthcare system in West Bengal.

The leftist organisations played a key ‘behind-the-scenes’ role in organising the protests. The parents of Abhaya appeared at many protest venues for several weeks.

 A probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation could not find involvement of anyone else other than Sanjay Ray, a contractual employee of the Kolkata Police, who was arrested by the city cops a day after the incident and was later sentenced to life imprisonment by a court. But the parents of Abhaya, and many others who joined the protests, are still not convinced by the findings of the CBI probe and believe that there is more into it.

The CPI (M) and the other leftist organisations foiled the BJP’s bid to take over the protests that spread across the state after the rape and murder of Abhaya. But Rana’s decision to contest the elections on a BJP ticket from Panihati did hurt the communists, who, like herself and her husband, often questioned in the past two years why the CBI, controlled by the saffron party’s government at the Centre, failed to unearth the ‘truth’.

“We are not fighting against any individual. We are fighting against both the corrupt TMC and the divisive BJP. They both failed to ensure the safety of women in the states ruled by them,” Kalatan says, adding: “We want the CBI to answer the questions raised by the parents of Abhaya and explain the loopholes in its investigation.”

Ratna has accused the CPI(M) and other leftist organisations of hindering the process to get justice for her daughter and of trying to politicise the crime. “We will continue to seek justice for her daughter, and all the other victims of crime and injustice against women like her, in this state or other states, including the ones ruled by the BJP,” Kalatan says, but refrains from personal attacks against Ratna. His campaign also focuses on other issues, lack of industries and employment opportunities, healthcare facilities, civic amenities and public educational infrastructure.

Tirthankar is relying on the TMC government’s welfare schemes and the party’s organisational network in Panihati, which elected his father, Nirmal Ghosh, to the state assembly five times. “I would not comment on a matter pending before the court,” he says, in response to questions on the rape and murder of Abhaya. “I am sure the people of Panihati will repose their faith in the TMC for continued development of the constituency.”

A video circulated online however has Ratna making some harsh comments about Mamata. This prompted Kalyan Banerjee, a TMC member in the Lok Sabha, to lodge a complaint with the Election Commission on Sunday.