The arrest of Sandip Ghosh, former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, by the CBI is indicates the culpability of a dysfunctional system in enabling tragedies such as the rape and murder of the trainee doctor. If those in charge are busy profiting off corruption, it is only natural that the general functioning of a hospital or any other institution would be adversely affected. Where the focus should be on maintaining high standards in every aspect of management and it shifts, instead, to serving personal and political interests, it is only natural that major gaps will open for nefarious elements to exploit. No wonder the perpetrator of the rape and murder found the opportunity, space and time to carry out the crime.
There have been shocking revelations made even by a minister of the TMC regime in West Bengal about the rot having existed in the College from decades ago. This implies that the authorities have been deliberately and chronically blind to the situation. The ongoing agitation by the medical fraternity in the state, which is being sought to be assuaged by promises of justice being delivered to the victim and stricter legislation against rape, is seeking much more – the cleansing of the system, examination of how far the culpability extends, and bringing to account the ones who have allowed such a state of affairs to exist. Just because West Bengal has a government that opposes the BJP does not absolve the ruling TMC. It is not the doctors who are making the issue political, it is the state’s establishment that is thus trying to divert attention from what has been exposed as a serious situation.
The same is the case with the shocking revelations that have emerged from the Malayalam film industry. The fact that women were being exploited and ill-treated by a male-dominated system has naturally come as a shock for the general public. But was not the situation allowed to continue by the Kerala Government by ignoring the Hema Commission report for years? All the suffering that will have been endured by women during these intervening years would be directly the result of this deliberate disregard. How then can the government not be held as culpable as the actual perpetrators? But that an entire eco-system is choosing to ignore because politics is getting in the way. So, those claiming the issue is being politicised are the actual ones using diversionary tactics to shield those in power.
