A student uses a scarf to cover her face after security personnel fired tear gas shells to disperse students during a protest march towards West Bengal Secretariat over the alleged sexual assault and murder of a trainee doctor, in Kolkata, Tuesday, August 27, 2024.
Kolkata: The Left Front stayed away from the ‘Nabanna Abhiyan’ in Kolkata on Tuesday as the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal accused the Sangh Parivar of playing a behind-the-scenes role in organising the professedly ‘apolitical’ march to the state secretariat to protest the rape and murder of a young doctor.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and its allies in the Left Front rather announced its plan for a ‘Maha Michhil’ (grand procession) in Kolkata on September 3 to protest the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital and the alleged cover-up attempts by the ruling Trinamool Congress and the police.
As the sexual assault and killing of the 31-year-old doctor triggered widespread outrage against the TMC government, the CPI(M) and other leftist parties also took to the streets across the state, demanding that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee should relinquish the home and health portfolios.
Like the protesting colleagues of the slain doctor, the Left Front too alleged a cover-up attempt following the recovery of her body from the seminar room of the Department of Chest Medicine on the third floor of the RGKMCH.
The rape and murder of the young doctor also renewed the focus on rampant corruption and irregularities at the hospital run by the government of West Bengal.
The march to the state secretariat was convened on social media platforms, initially by three youngsters, who denied any links to any political party. They rather insisted that the participants in the march must come without the flag of any political party.
The TMC, however, alleged that the BJP was trying to politicise the rape and murder of the postgraduate trainee doctor at the RGKMCH in Kolkata and playing a behind-the-scenes role in orchestrating the march.
The TMC cited the links of the organisers of the march with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as well as the student and youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party to drive home the point that the so-called apolitical march was being organised at the behest of the saffron party.
Mohammed Salim, the state secretary of the CPI(M), alleged that the BJP was trying to reap political advantage from the mass protest against the rape and murder of the young doctor.
He said that the TMC was happy to see the BJP getting active as it would help the ruling party to divert the attention of the people from the failure of the state government to ensure the safety of the women in general and the cover-up attempt after the rape and murder of the doctor at the RGKMCH in particular.
The TMC alleged a collusion between the BJP and the CPI(M). It alleged that the CPI(M) and the BJP were trying to politicise the heinous crime.