Why The Left Has No Moral Right To Join Protests Against RG Kar Rape-Murder Or Doctors' Strike

The presence of some senior leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) at a protest rally organised by a body of doctors on Tuesday evening (1 October) has shifted the spotlight on the involvement of left and ultra-left parties and lobbies in the ongoing junior doctors’ stir. 

Left and ultra-left parties and outfits have virtually hijacked the ongoing junior doctors’ stir, creating a lot of unease among both junior and senior doctors (read this). 

However, the left — especially the mainstream left parties — has no moral right to participate in protests against the brutal rape-murder of the young postgraduate intern at RG Kar Medical College or in the movement to reform Bengal's health and medical education systems.

Ironically, it was the left — particularly the CPI(M), which misruled Bengal for 34 years from 1977 — that is largely responsible for the deep rot in the public healthcare system and the toxic culture within the state's medical education institutions. 

Crimes Against Women

Left rule in Bengal was marked by horrific and unrelenting crimes against women. There were shocking incidents of rape which were condoned by the state. Assaults and rapes of women belonging to workers and supporters of opposition parties (the Congress and then the Trinamool Congress) were a favourite tactic of communist cadres to suppress the opposition. 

Women in the families of opposition party functionaries and supporters were soft targets of murderous communist cadres and the CPI(M)’s vast army of musclemen. Leaders of the CPI(M) condoned these assaults and rapes and even justified them.

One such horrific assault — the 1990 Bantala rape — serves as a stark reminder of the dark days of Left Front rule in Bengal.

Three lady health officers — two working with the state health department and another with the UNICEF — were gang-raped by CPI(M) workers at Bantala in the southeastern limits of Kolkata on 30 May 1990. 

The three were returning from Gosaba in South 24 Parganas district after auditing a government-funded immunisation programme when their vehicle was intercepted by CPI(M) cadres.

The ladies were pulled out of the vehicle, taken to a paddy field and brutally gang-raped. The driver who tried to intervene had his genitals injured; he died a few days later. 

One of the three victims died on the spot, but the other two survived. A lady doctor who was conducting the post-mortem examination of the dead victim fainted on discovering that a metal torchlight had been inserted into her private parts by the rapists!

The then Chief Minister Jyoti Basu’s blase reaction was, “Such things happen,” while the Health Minister at the time, Prashanta Sur, shockingly justified the incident by claiming that the three women were mistaken for child-lifters!

But at that time, it was widely suspected that the CPI(M) had let loose its goons on the three because the UNICEF officer had unearthed a scam in the state’s vaccination programme.  

Rapes, molestations and other crimes against women became common during Left rule in Bengal and the perpetrators were always cadres of the ruling party or people connected with the CPI(M). 

What’s more, the police very often refused to register complaints by the victims and their families, and so no perpetrator was ever punished. 

The threat of rape was frequently used as a tool to coerce women into complying with the left’s demands. This menace was often wielded to force college girls to join CPI(M)-affiliated groups or to deter them from aligning with opposition student unions. 

It was the CPI(M) that initiated the deeply harmful practice of politicising state machinery and institutions, including medical colleges. 

Apart from demanding loyalty from bureaucrats, the CPI(M) also packed the lower and middle bureaucracy with its own people. This led to the complete politicisation of the state machinery, including the health department. 

All postings and transfers — from the departmental secretary to the peon — were determined by an employee’s subservience or loyalty to the ruling, eagerness to do its bidding, and willingness to donate to the CPI(M)’s coffers. 

Corruption was, thus, institutionalised and the government machinery was completely politicised and made subservient to the party (CPI-M). 

All this led to the monumental misgovernance, nepotism, favouritism and endemic corruption that still plagues the government machinery in Bengal.

In its bid to exercise total control over medical colleges, the CPI(M) demanded unswerving loyalty from faculty and non-teaching staff as well as doctors and para-medical staff in the hospitals attached to these colleges. 

Everyone was expected to join the doctors’ and medical students’ bodies affiliated with the CPI(M); those who refused were transferred to rural hospitals or (in the case of medical students) given low marks or failed examinations. 

Sexual exploitation of students — both males and females — by their seniors as well as faculty members with close ties to the ruling party became commonplace. 

The CPI(M)’s stranglehold on the health department and medical colleges allowed administrators and others to indulge in widespread corruption. Healthcare services suffered as government hospitals became dens of corruption. 

The Left Front government failed to make capital investments in public healthcare services and recruit adequate medical and para-medical staff. This led to a sharp decline in public healthcare facilities and services in the state. 

Things Got Worse After 2011

After the Trinamool Congress came to power in 2011, the situation only worsened. The Trinamool, an undisciplined party with multiple factions vying with each other to control institutions and get a slice of the pie, made the Left Front’s misdeeds and malfeasance pale in comparison. 

Not only did corruption in the state healthcare and medical education systems increase manifold, but the 'threat culture' that thrived during Left rule became even more entrenched.

The exploitation of medical students increased and became more shameless, and Trinamool worthies made no effort to mask their misdeeds. Medical students, doctors, nurses, and health staff were made to bend to the will of the Trinamool, and severe punishment meted out to naysayers. 

Junior doctors are now agitating precisely against this toxic culture introduced by the CPI(M) and compounded during the last 13 years of Trinamool rule. 

That’s why the CPI(M) has no moral right whatsoever to participate in the protests against the RG Kar rape-murder, or the movement against corruption, threat culture, and misconduct in the state health department and healthcare system. 

Also read: Why The Sharp 'Left' Turn In Bengal’s Junior Doctors’ Movement Threatens Progress After RG Kar Tragedy