Mamata's Darkest Hour

The West Bengal CM and her government take desperate measures to win back the trust of Bengal's irate, protesting citizens

- ARKAMOY DATTA MAJUMDAR

How the mightiest have been shaken up! Just three months after the citizens of West Bengal handed the Trinamool Congress 29 out of its 42 Lok Sabha seats, the incumbent government is at the receiving end of unprecedented and ever-growing waves of protests over its handling of the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital (RGKMCH). If there has been one focal point of public ire, it has been Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Since August 9, the dark night of the gruesome deed, Mamata has been perceived as being at the root of the rot in an administration that allegedly tried to cover up the crime. As a number of questions related to the death of the 31-year-old remain unanswered and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) uncovers alleged corruption by former RGKMCH principal Sandip Ghosh, there is angst in the TMC as well-disillusioned over the "faulty handling" of the whole affair, Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar has decided to quit the party, while another upper house MP, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, has publicly criticised the administration's role. As the TMC and the government embark on the task of winning back people's confidence, the opposition space has been taken over by the common people. The BJP's attempts at organising a few protests were rather underwhelming, while the CPI(M) has decided to stay low-key, allowing civic society to take the lead and hoping that it will help them break the TMC-BJP binary.

TMC TRIES TO RECOVER GROUND