By [Editorial Desk | The Civic Watch]
Kolkata, October 2025 — In yet another deeply troubling moment for women’s rights and governance accountability, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has once again come under fire — not for inaction, but for deflection.
Following the brutal gang-rape of a medical student in Durgapur, Banerjee’s response has shocked citizens and activists alike. Instead of unequivocal condemnation of the perpetrators or a commitment to justice, she questioned why the survivor was “out at 12:30 at night,” suggesting,
“Especially girl children at night time… they should not be allowed to come outside. They have to protect themselves also.”
These words, from a leader who also heads the state’s law and order portfolio, strike at the core of what has become a recurring pattern — a playbook of victim-blaming, institutional deflection, and moral policing, often cloaked in maternal concern but carrying patriarchal undertones.
🔍 A Pattern Rooted in Power, Not Protection
This is not an isolated incident. From the Park Street gang-rape in 2012, which she called a “concocted story”, to the Hanskhali case of 2022, where she wondered aloud if a teenage girl’s rape and death were “a love affair gone wrong,” Banerjee’s comments have consistently redirected scrutiny from the criminals to the victims.
Every such statement sends a chilling signal — to the police, to the bureaucracy, and to the women of Bengal: speak up, and you will be doubted; demand justice, and you will be blamed.
In the Park Street case, when a police officer, Damayanti Sen, defied political pressure and ensured arrests, she was swiftly transferred — a reminder that integrity carries a professional cost in a culture of denial.
⚖️ The Consequence: A Culture of Impunity
The outcome of this governance style is visible in the numbers. West Bengal’s conviction rate for crimes against women remains among the lowest in India.
Each act of deflection — each question about “why she was out,” or “what she was wearing” — fuels a justice system that is hesitant, defensive, and often indifferent to survivors.
Experts say this attitude fosters not safety, but silence — women stop reporting crimes out of fear that they will become the accused in their own case.
💔 The Political Theatre of Sympathy
Ironically, Mamata Banerjee once built her political identity on fighting injustice.
In 1992, she paraded Dipali Basak, a deaf-mute rape victim, to condemn her political rivals. Years later, Dipali died in obscurity, her family forgotten.
It remains a haunting metaphor for Banerjee’s governance — where empathy is performative, not protective.
🌍 What Bengal (and India) Needs Now
The Durgapur case should have been a defining moment — a chance for the Chief Minister to assert zero tolerance against gendered violence and restore public confidence.
It demanded three simple but powerful acts:
- Believe the survivor.
- Acknowledge policing failures.
- Place scrutiny on the accused, not the victim.
Instead, we received a familiar, disheartening refrain — “Why was she out at night?”
✊ Accountability Is Not Complicated
Accountability requires courage, not convenience.
It requires empathy, not evasion.
And for a leader who once symbolized defiance, it’s tragic that the fight she once led for justice now feels directed against her own citizens’ cries for it.
Until those in power stop asking why women were “out at night” — and start asking why men still think they can act without consequence — the streets of Bengal will remain unsafe, and its justice system, untrustworthy.
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