West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s comments on the alleged gangrape of a private medical college student in Durgapur have drawn huge backlash, with opposition parties and women’s rights activists accusing her of victim-shaming.
The chief minister, while reacting to the case, questioned how the survivor “was outside the campus at 12:30 am.” whereas the police complaint and witness accounts suggest the assault happened much earlier in the evening.
Five men have been arrested in connection with the incident.
Mamata Banerjee’s controversial remark
Speaking to the media on Sunday, Banerjee said, “She was studying in a private medical college... all the private medical are whose responsibility? how they came out in the night at 12:30?... it happened, so far I know, in the forest area... investigation is on,” per the Hindustan Times report.
She said that private medical colleges should “take care of their students, especially the girl child,” and that women “should not be allowed to come out” at night.
“... they have to protect themselves also,” she added.
Echoing her line, Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy also said women shouldn’t go out late at night, arguing that “police cannot provide security at every inch.”
Timeline contradicts Mamata Banerjee’s claim
Contrary to Banerjee’s statement, the survivor’s parents and friends said the alleged assault took place between 8 pm and 9 pm on Friday not after midnight.
Even an NDTV report cited the FIR filed by the victim’s father, detailed the assault occurred around 8 pm when the woman went out with a male friend for dinner.
“We received a call from her classmates around 9.30 pm. Her classmates informed us that she was raped and that we should immediately come to Durgapur. We reached the campus on Saturday morning. She is not well and is admitted in the hospital. The miscreants demanded money to return her mobile,” the father said.
The mother added that her daughter was followed by three men after her friend fled, and that “one of them committed the crime and snatched her mobile.”
Following the BJP accused Banerjee of “blaming the victim instead of ensuring justice.”
Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari wrote on X, “Your words are an attempt to mask your failure as an Administrator. Victim Shaming has become your State Policy.”
BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia called Banerjee “a blot on womanhood,” while Union minister Kiren Rijiju said that if such a comment had come from a BJP chief minister, the “illiberal gang” would have caused a national uproar.
