State of Notoriety

A spate of unsavoury incidents in varsity campuses and hospitals have exposed the deep rot in West Bengal’s institutions under the TMC.

West Bengal

There was a time when West Bengal prided itself on being a land of learning, a crucible of reform, and a stronghold of intellectual dissent. Today, it makes national headlines not for its ideas but for its impunity. In the span of three weeks, two alleged rapes - one inside the prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta, the other within the premises of South Calcutta Law College - have laid bare a pattern of notoriety.

Bengal’s institutions, once hailed as engines of progress, have become scenes of violence, and the state’s machinery seems either paralysed or politically compromised.

In the latest such incident, a 26-year-old IIM Calcutta student was arrested for allegedly drugging and raping a mental health counsellor within a student hostel on campus. The complainant claims she felt dizzy after sharing pizza and water with the accused, was denied access to a washroom, lost consciousness and was subsequently raped. That such an incident could unfold in one of India’s elite institutions is itself shocking. But even more troubling is how quickly this comes on the heels of an even more horrifying crime.

Late last month, a 24-year-old law student was gang-raped inside the South Calcutta Law College, dragged into a guard room by a criminal lawyer and two student accomplices. The main accused, Manojit Mishra, is a known face in the student wing of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), reportedly close to senior party functionaries. If colleges are meant to be sanctuaries of justice and progress, then Bengal’s campuses have become laboratories of violence and impunity.

This is symptomatic of systemic decay. From the ghastly rape and murder of a trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College last year, to the state’s limp response to the Sandeshkhali atrocities where TMC-affiliated goons allegedly harassed and assaulted women, West Bengal has repeatedly demonstrated that law enforcement is selective, institutional accountability is absent and political connections matter more than public safety.

A formal statement from the Director-in-Charge of IIM Kolkata asserts zero tolerance and promises cooperation with police. But statements are no substitute for action in a climate where institutional silos often collude with external pressure to dilute justice.

What unites these incidents is not just violence, but the impunity that follows. It is telling that the alleged rapist in the law college case had long outlived his student tenure yet maintained a stranglehold on the institution, operating with the kind of authority that suggests more than just familiarity.

This points to a governance model that has substituted law with loyalty. The TMC, which once promised a clean break from the CPI(M)’s strong-arm legacy, has merely rebranded authoritarianism in its own colours. Syndicate-run colleges, cadre-captured panchayats, and a bureaucracy allergic to accountability seems to be the new normal in Bengal. Justice is not just delayed or denied but is actively discouraged if the perpetrator has the right political credentials.

At the heart of this rot is a leader who once commanded national admiration. Mamata Banerjee, who rose as the “David” to CPI(M)’s “Goliath,” now presides over a system she once vowed to dismantle. Her government’s record on women’s safety, civil liberty, and institutional independence is positively dystopian. When leaders lose their moral compass, it is the powerless who bleed.

For now, Bengal’s streets will see a few candlelight marches, social media will churn with outrage and the news cycle will move on. But for the victims and for the thousands of students who enter these institutions in hope, something irreversible has shifted. A society that cannot guarantee basic safety in its spaces of learning has already begun its descent into darkness.

West Bengal today is not in the news because of its thinkers, achievers or reformers. It is in the news because violence against women has become routine and silence institutional. That is a tragedy which no amount of spin can whitewash.