THE victim in the RG Kar case has a new name born in the womb of protests against the barbarities she had to face. She is called Tilottama – one who combines in herself the best of all. The solidarity struggles for justice for Tillottama — have shaken not just Bengal but the country. Thousands of self-mobilised citizens, their conscience awakened  have come out in street protests in solidarity . The West Bengal Junior Doctors organisation and the Joint Platform of Doctors are in the forefront. All the Left oriented mass organisations in their sustained peaceful actions display a steadfast commitment for justice. The strong support of the Left Front has meant that the voices have travelled from the towns to the most remote parts across the state, to the villages, where people gather in solidarity. Young and old, women and men, all communities, and from all walks of life show no fatigue, in the everyday protests. Indeed, the energy and voices of protest resonate more strongly from day to day. The protests make it clear that justice does not end with the arrest of one individual. It means targeting and eliminating the nexus behind the horrific crime, the corruption, the patronage, the cover up, all those involved— the whole rotten system which enables a criminal, a so-called civic volunteer, to rape a young doctor in a public hospital, confident that he would get away with it. And the truth is that he would have got away with it if not for the fight back and the struggle, at every point. The movement gives hope that all those reactionary forces out to eliminate justice can be challenged, resisted and wrestled down by hundreds and thousands of united people. The hearings in the Supreme Court and the report to the court by the CBI, indicate, according to the Supreme Court, “details which are much worse than what is known.” The TMC government which was demonising the doctors and the protests has had to back down and accept some of the demands. The struggle continues in different forms.

RAPE CULTURES LINKED TO STRUCTURAL INEQUALITIES

In this article I look at an aspect of the RG Kar case which relates to the dimensions of rape cultures which were introduced by the ruling party, the TMC and its representatives in the various phases of its defence of the indefencible. As fighters for justice, women’s organisations and movements have learnt that these cultures proliferate linked to the systemic and structural nature of women’s secondary status in India.  Indeed cases of sexual assault and gender and caste based barbarity in India have their roots in the systemic inequality between men and women, from birth to death.  In a country of obscene inequalities, the vulnerability of working class women, particularly rural poor women in unsafe working conditions dominated by the rural elite, contractors and so on is structural. The toxic caste system co-opted by capitalism in India  is a part of the structure which leads to an intensified dimension of violence against dalit and adivasi women. It is in these specific socio-economic conditions in India that rape cultures are promoted.

The united struggles of women’s organisations and also achievements of individual women have together formed a powerful bloc that have broken many barriers.  However, these successes are sought to be undermined and countered in various ways by reactionary forces— a kind of backlash against women’s advance and her assertion of equal rights in public as well as private spaces. A part of this backlash is reflected in rape supportive cultures.

RAPE SUPPORTIVE CULTURES

Rape supportive cultures or rape cultures are those that justify, trivialise or deny sexual violence. Rape cultures create environments where the victim of rape finds it difficult to access justice. Rape cultures sabotage the processes of justice by various means including the use of the media. Instead of naming and shaming the perpetrator of the sexual violence, rape cultures blame the victim as being responsible for whatever violence she has faced.   In India there are additional dimensions of rape cultures linked to the religious community or the caste identity of the perpetrator and the victim. Manuvadi ideologies and cultures, deeply anti women and committed to rigid caste hierarchies are already existent and prevailing in Indian society provide a springboard for such rape cultures. Under BJP rule ideologies to justify violence against women — communal majoritarianism targeting Muslim women as well as manuvadi majoritarianism affecting all sections of women, particularly dalit women are promoted by the BJP-RSS eco system backed by the state and its institutions. It is well known that in BJP ruled states, the power of the state has been used to protect the perpetrators of violence depending on their religous or caste identity. It is not the rule of law or the framework of justice but the religous or caste identity of the perpetrator and victim which determine who gets punished and who walks free. In such cases, rape cultures that enable crimes are linked to caste and creed.

STRUCTURAL ISSUES IN RG KAR CASE

In Bengal it is under the Trinamool Congress Raj that this terrible case occurred. The method of appointment of so- called civic volunteers by the government;  role of government and Health Minister in protecting the Principal; role of the principal and the police in trying to sabotage the case; the rampant corruption in the administration; the links between those involved in the corruption and the horrific crime; questions regarding the nexus which allowed a civic volunteer easy access to all rooms, including a seminar room of the hospital; lack of protection for working women and other medical personnel in the hospital— are some of the major issues which go beyond the act of an individual criminal. It is structural in the sense that in this case it concerns the government directly, the police and government policies.

Instead of dealing with these issues and answering them, the TMC has unleashed a narrative which extends the framework of rape cultures. It is perhaps a development to be specifically noted that the narrative is  primarily led by women MPs of the TMC. The effort is to downplay and divert attention from the glaring gaps signifying connivance of the government and police to conceal and protect the nexus.

EXPANSION OF RAPE CULTURES

 It is shameful that a woman MP started giving details of the postmortem report of the victim in the name of countering fake news. In a  widely circulated video, she took it upon herself to discuss details of semen found or not found, details of the weight of private organs and so on to “counter” the charge that it was a gangrape. In a subsequent video the MP concerned started a discussion on whether a bone was broken or not and declared triumphantly that the postmortem showed that it was all lies and that no hip bone was broken. This is a dreadful new low in the indignity heaped on a sexual assault victim. It contrives to shift attention from the horrific nature of the crime of rape itself to engage in such details to start a public discussion on the victim and the state of her body. What it means in terms of the greening of rape cultures is that unless “rape plus” is proved — bones broken —the rape is a “normal” one. This is precisely what rape cultures are about — the sickening normalisation of rape. It is not horrific enough that a girl on duty in a public hospital is raped and murdered— something “more” than that has to be proved to warrant public outrage. In this case the MP concerned misused her easier access to reports, such as the post mortem report, to shift public attention. Fake news cannot be countered by such methods. Post -mortem reports and legal procedures speak for themselves, when they are used in the way done by the woman MP, it has a different connotation which creates new rape cultures.

 Another woman MP said on television that “during the previous regime, female students were made to sit on the lap of examiners to pass exams.” This highly sexist remark in the context of a rape and murder case also adds to rape cultures. Firstly, it reduces the entire issue of rape into a tu tu main main, as the saying in Hindi goes means you do this and I do that kind of a useless argument between political parties. Useless because it lowers the standards of public discourse to the lowest possible denominator “ the previous regime did this”  as justification for what is happening now. This trivializes the issue of rape and the horror of a rape victim into a political slugfest. In doing so, this woman MP, a doctor herself,  is also responsible for sexually humiliating  women in the medical profession as though female medical students have granted sexual favors to pass exams. Such comments from a senior elected representative add to misogynistic cultures against working women, of being “ easily available.” The MP had to apologise after a storm of protests, but the statement only shows how rape cultures can grow in political discourse.

 Yet another woman MP put out videos day in and out expressing her support to the chief minister, Kolkata police and so on. The inquiry nails her misleading claims.  At every level of the investigation she would say— this shows Kolkata police was right at every step, kind of defence. Did she ever think to question: how is a public hospital so unsafe for a young woman doctor? Why did the Principal take so long to come to the hospital and file an FIR? Why was he protected and defended by the chief minister? Why were the parents treated so shabbily?  In all her statements  there is hardly any reference to the horror of the crime itself. When young women traumatised by this case, see this kind of insensitive defence of the indefensible by a woman MP, what would go through their minds? Best to keep quiet than face this kind of callousness? Such statements demoralise those wanting a better world for women, they make the battle even more uphill. Leading women of the TMC have let women down.

It should also not be forgotten that this is not the first time that rape cultures have been promoted to defend their own government starting with objectionable statements by the chief minister herself such as her shaming the victim in the Park Street case, or Kamdhuni or in Sandeshkhali. These women leaders should be called out for their statements.

 A male TMC Councillor said “ To those who make indecent comments against Mamata Banerjee on social media, I will distort pictures of the women in their families including their mothers and sisters and put them up on their doors.” This too is a typical example of rape cultures which justify violence against women as “revenge” or who use women’s bodies  as the sites to teach the identified opponent a lesson. A woman has been raped — that becomes insignificant when you have to defend your leader. It is true that Mamata Banerjee has been targeted sometimes in a crude sexist way.  Nothing justifies sexist language against her, even when she uses vulgar language against her opponents. In this case women themselves are out on the streets, particularly young women protesting against the rape. To make sexist threats against protesters masking it as defence of the leader is reprehensible. In any case, it is well  known that the Bengal government has established records in filing cases against persons who criticise the chief minister, including on social media,  from a young woman in a TV studio to a professor in a university to a farmer asking for his rights. Any such trolling of the CM would get an immediate response from the police. Such comments as the councillor made show another aspect of rape cultures, that is, to silence men who join the protests against rape by threatening to sexually humiliate their women family members.

“POLITICALISATION” OF RAPE CASES

Rape often becomes an issue used by political parties to accuse each other of failure to combat crimes against women. This is often criticized as “ politicalisation” of rape. Governments must be brought to book and held accountable for callousness or criminal connivance or protecting the accused in cases of rape as often happens. Rape is a political issue. It concerns the use of power, the culture of male entitlement in a highly patriarchal and casteist society.  Crimes against women and increasing sexual crimes, are deeply “political issues.” Status quo politics has tried to project these issues as what in political language were called “ soft issues” — dowry murders, domestic violence, child sexual abuse, sexual assault- all dumped in the “ non- political, soft issue “ women’s compartment. Women’s struggles and the courage of survivors have broken the compartment gate. But we are still a long way away from gender sensitive politics. Calling out the politics and cultures that enable crimes including sexual crimes against women is required and we must reject the charge that this is “politicalisation” of the issue of rape.

Our struggles for justice must differentiate between the necessary “politicalisation” including calling into account government’s responsibilities, from “narrow party politics” of the tu tu main main kind mentioned earlier in this article. Bengal is a good example of why this differentiation is necessary.  In Bengal the TMC and the BJP between them seek to establish the most gender insensitive binary to undermine and marginalise the huge spontaneous protest movements led by the doctors themselves. The BJP tried to hijack the issue by floating a so- called Chatra Samaj platform — an ill-concealed BJP/RSS creation — which organised a violent demonstration against the TMC government. Having provoked the police into action — by all counts excessive repressive action, the hallmark of the TMC police— the stage was set to hijack the movement into a narrow political fight— a BJP vs TMC political ‘dangal’ ( wrestling pitch)  which suits both. Equally objectionable, the BJP projected itself as the victim, calling for a bandh, trying to replace the focus on the rape victim with focus on itself. The people of Bengal saw through this game and gave it short shrift. In contrast, the Left Front parties have organized their parallel huge mobilisations which add the necessary strength to spontaneous protests. By doing so the Left Front has also helped to break the “women’s only non-political” compartment and shown how a responsible political party can support a movement’s demands in a sustained manner, respecting the decisions of the leaders of the movement, in this case the doctors.

The TMC in Bengal has also tried its best to discredit the spontaneous mobilization of people across the state and the Left front’s independent mobilisations —which is trying to criminalise solidarity. Such criminalisation of solidarity and imputing “political” motives to solidarity mobilisations also plays a role in silencing voices demanding justice. This isolates the victim and her family depriving them of social support while the perpetrator benefits. We must reject the criminalisation of solidarity which is an instrument being used by the TMC to discredit the movement.

DRAMA OF A NEW LAW

It is the responsibility of governments, police and society at large, to prevent a sexual crime. In the aftermath of  the Nirbhaya case in Delhi the Verma Commission which was set up gave a series of recommendations including the changes in the law, some of which were implemented. Let us be quite clear about this— it is not because there is a lack or weakness in the law that the RG Kar crime took place. It is not because of any legal infirmities that the structures which enable such crimes exist in RG Kar hospital and other institutions in Bengal. Yet the chief minister of Bengal made a drama of passing a new law. This is a classic way to divert attention. The proposed law itself is deeply flawed and indeed is in violation of the recommendations of the Verma Commission. Such steps do not in any way help bring justice to the victim of rape and murder. The government and administration must be forced to accept accountability.