Actor Swastika Mukherjee with activists during an overnight sit-in dharna after a protest rally demanding justice for a trainee doctor who was raped-murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, at Kolkata.
Credit: PTI Photo
Filmmakers, movie stars march with activists, students, medics to add momentum to protest against rape, murder of doctor in Kolkata
Kolkata: Film and theatre personalities, artists, civil society activists, students, and junior doctors took to the streets in Kolkata on Sunday to seek justice for the postgraduate trainee doctor who was raped and murdered at a hospital run by the government of West Bengal on August 9.
The march followed by a sit-in demonstration added fresh momentum to the apolitical protests against the rape and murder of the 31-year-old doctor at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital after the outrage of the citizens was slightly eclipsed by the attempts by Bhartiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Congress to turn it into a political movement against the state’s Trinamool Congress government led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The BJP and the CPI(M), however, continued with their own sit-in demonstration and protest marches in Kolkata as well as other places in West Bengal.
A special session of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly will commence on Monday with the TMC government planning to get a proposed legislation passed to amend the existing state laws to ensure capital punishment for convicted rapists. In response to the outrage over the rape and murder of the young doctor, the ruling TMC’s supremo and the state’s chief minister had on August 28 promised such a change in the state laws.
Award-winning actress-turned-filmmaker Aparna Sen, celebrity directors Srijit Mukhopadhyay and Birsa Dasgupta, singer Shovan Ganguly, movie stars like Swastika Mukherjee, Sudipta and Bidipta Chakraborty, Chaiti Ghosal, and Sohini Sarkar, as well as other luminaries from the entertainment industry of West Bengal, marched shoulder-to-shoulder with the activists, youths, students and medics. The protest march with the banner “Amra Tilottama” or “We are Tilottama” started from College Square in the city.
‘Tilottama’ and ‘Abhaya’ are the two pseudonyms of the victim used in public discourse to avoid disclosure of her real identity.
After the march reached Esplanade, it turned into an impromptu sit-in demonstration, which would continue till early in the morning on Monday. Swastika, Sudipta, Bidipta, and Sohini as well as other celebrity film and theatre personalities of West Bengal sat on the road along with other activists at the Rani Rashmani Avenue in central Kolkata.
“We are walking on the road together, demanding justice. If needed, I will hit the road again. The common people have the right to demand answers and know the truth,” Aparna Sen said when the protest march started at College Square near the University of Calcutta.
A man was arrested by Kolkata Police for raping and murdering the doctor just a day after her body was found in the Seminar Room of the Department of Chest Medicine on the third floor of the RGKMCH on August 9. Her colleagues however launched a cease work stir alleging a cover-up attempt by the college and hospital authorities and the Kolkata Police. The Calcutta High Court handed over the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation on August 13. The court later also asked the central agency to take over the probe into allegations of corruption and financial irregularities at the RGKMCH.
“We know the CBI is investigating the case, but reports suggest there might be attempts to suppress certain details following the doctor's death. We need answers,” said Swastika Mukherjee.
“We will remain here till 4 am. The administration might think that the movement will lose momentum with the upcoming festive season, but it will resume and grow larger after the Durga Puja. We understand that small business owners might be affected by this movement, but they are with us.”
Birsa Dasgupta said that the Amra Tilottama forum had sent its charter of demands to the state government and would wait for the response from the authorities.
An intoxicated youth was arrested by police for misbehaving with one of the protesters during the march.