You're Not Imagining It: West Bengal Is Stuck In A Nightmare Loop

West Bengal saw protests and demonstrations last week by Opposition parties over the gang rape of a medical student in Durgapur, Paschim Bardhaman district.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters staged sit-ins at Asansol South police station, while former MP Locket Chatterjee was denied hospital entry to meet the survivor. Left Front chairman Biman Bose demanded capital punishment for the accused.

The parties were also protesting Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's remark that 'girl children should not be allowed to come outside at night time." She reportedly added, "They have to protect themselves also".

Banerjee however claimed on 12 October evening that her words had been taken out of context: "You ask me a question, and when I answer, my words are twisted and taken out of context. Do not try this nasty politics with me".

If you think you have heard or seen all of this before, you are not entirely wrong. This is not the first time that the West Bengal chief minister has found herself in such a controversy. She had also dismissed the Park Street rape case of 2012 as a "sajano ghotona", a staged event.

If you follow news from West Bengal, you cannot be faulted for your dismay upon discovering a certain repetition in the bad news coming from the state. Almost like a time cycle.

It was only in August last year, when the 'RG Kar case' was making the headlines, that a woman trainee doctor was raped and killed inside the premises of a medical college in Kolkata. The principal of the college resigned after protests but was soon appointed as the principal of another medical college in the state.

Six months before that, it was the village of Sandeshkhali that was garnering notoriety. Here, women accused local Trinamool strongman Shahjahan Sheikh and his accomplices of molestation, rape, and 'sextortion'. Sheikh evaded authorities for over a month before being arrested. He continues to remain in Alipore jail, as per the last reports on him.

The same pattern repeats in political and communal violence. The month of April, which sees the Ram Navami festival, has witnessed bad news from West Bengal, especially since 2023.

In the last three years, the festival has been accompanied in West Bengal by either arson and violence or vandalism.

The Ram Navami of 2023 saw major violence in Howrah and Hooghly and involved stone-pelting on Ram Navami processions from rooftops, arson of vehicles (including police cars), and attacks on shops. At least one death was reported. Hooghly continued to remain tense for multiple days. Section 144 was imposed on the concerned areas, and the internet was also suspended for a period of time.

Murshidabad’s Shaktipur and Rejinagar areas were flashpoints in 2024, with over 20 injuries from rooftop stone-pelting and unconfirmed crude bomb reports. Shops were vandalised, and the Calcutta High Court sought an NIA report, criticising the local administration.

In 2025, Kolkata’s Park Circus saw vehicles returning from processions being attacked, with one shattered windshield. The Police, meanwhile, denied granting permission for any rally and registered a case for vandalism.

Do note that up till this point, we have not mentioned the political violence in the state.

Bengal was hardly exempt from political violence during Communist rule. Multiple accounts suggest the state actually experienced the highest levels of political violence in the country. However, since the Trinamool Congress won a third term in May 2021, such incidents have reached alarming new heights even in the context of Bengal.

The immediate post-poll frenzy after a third straight victory set a grim tone: on May 2, 2021, as results poured in, TMC supporters allegedly targeted BJP and CPM workers across districts like Birbhum, Hooghly, Cooch Behar, North Dinajpur.

Homes were torched, shops looted, and at least 11 lives lost in the first 48 hours alone, prompting the Union Home Ministry to demand a report from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's government.

Over 4,000 BJP families fled, with 303 still displaced by April 2022, their pleas for justice echoing in Calcutta High Court petitions. Allegations of rape and molestation surfaced, including a Supreme Court case where four accused had their bail revoked in 2025 for assaulting a BJP worker's family.

The CBI's probes implicated TMC leaders, charge-sheeting an MLA and councillors in a Kolkata BJP worker's murder.

The pattern repeated in Panchayat polls in July 2023, claiming 40 lives amid booth capturing and arson—West Bengal outstripping even Jammu & Kashmir in incidents.

And then again in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, which echoed 2021, BJP and CPI(M) supporters were assaulted in Cooch Behar and Jhargram. The TMC eventually secured 29 seats in the elections.

The recurrence of violence, political and against women, is aside from the recurrence of alleged scams that are unearthed in West Bengal every few months.

If you come across any grim news from Bengal and get the feeling you have seen this before—you are right, you have.