NEW DELHI: Are the institutions robust enough to repair the fault lines as observed? The overwhelming feeling of any ordinary citizen does not look well for the largest democracy in the world.
For an ordinary citizen, the murder of the 31-year-old medical PG trainee at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and desperate acts of the state administration to confuse issues raise several questions on the effectiveness of various Constitutional authorities of the national democracy. Are the institutions robust enough to repair the fault lines as observed? The overwhelming feeling of any ordinary citizen does not look well for the largest democracy in the world.
Take the incident first. The PG trainee doctor was on duty in the hospital. She lost her life during the night of 8-9 August. The hospital authorities were deceptive in reporting the gruesome incident to the parents. They told them she committed suicide, did not let the parents see the lifeless body, and finally completed last rites taking advantage of the inability to react by stunned parents. Faith in the hospital and its staff is the biggest casualty.
In case of any unnatural death, comes the law enforcing agency. The police from the local police station and its officer in charge to even the city’s police commissioner who had detailed information of the incident, all gave contradictory statements, more to conceal than to reveal the heinous incident. The entire police force seemed to be in a mortal hurry to complete the last rites of the victim. One DC (North) of Kolkata Police even attempted to buy silence of the heartbroken parents with cash as “fair price to compensate the death of their daughter”. Not only that, the police winked at the laid down procedure of sanitising the crime scene, conducting a careful post-mortem and preserving the body for clearing any future doubt, but even senior police officers, including the lady DC (Central of KP) fed fake news on the crime scene, people crowding the scene and such issues so as to confuse media and people. Will anybody have faith in the law enforcing agency?
In a constitutional democracy the highest elected person, Chief Minister in this case, intervenes under such cases. So did Mamata Banerjee, the West Bengal Chief Minister, who incidentally handled (even now she does) both the health and the police portfolios. The heinous crime took place and was managed by these two main portfolios which Mamata Banerjee heads. Her actions gave the impression that she was more keen to save the criminals than finding the guilty. Even the Kolkata High Court felt so and transferred the investigation to the CBI away from the Kolkata police. But this was more than four days after the incident, leaving enough time to erase incriminating evidences which included demolition of a part of the crime scene.
The highest court of India, perturbed by the incident of the RG Kar Hospital, decided suo moto to take over the case. This meant that the case shifted from the Kolkata High Court, which had started acting swiftly. The state administration engaged a battery of defence lawyers to plead in its defence. To an ordinary Bengali, faith in the adjudication system of the Supreme Court of India would be strengthened were several incriminating cases against the West Bengal government and its senior politicians to be swiftly dealt with. The RG Kar case brooks no postponement. And the proceedings watched live by many should help not work against restoring peoples’ faith in the august institution. Upon the CJI rests this heavy responsibility.
The renewed fury of Kolkata’s junior doctors after the court hearing on the 9th September was caused by the court stipulating that the striking junior doctors should return to work by the next day since the health service infrastructure in West Bengal, the state’s advocate Kapil Sibal claimed, broke down and patients were losing lives. The allegation, according to facts revealed by junior doctors, was exaggerated to say the least. Junior doctors are there in mere 16 hospitals or so in the state, which has more than 7,000 hospitals and health centres. Senior doctors had been working as before, perhaps even more, to attend to patients in these hospitals. But the Bench did not seek any clarification from opposing lawyers. Instead one opposing lawyer, Kaustabh Bagchi was admonished when he was contradicting the state’s senior counsel Sibal. The state’s Chief Minister had the temerity to ask doctors to join the forthcoming Durga Puja festivals forgetting agitations.
The other pillar of India’s constitutional democracy, the Union Government, is on test. There has,in the view of the junior doctors, no action from the Centre or its representative, the state’s Governor. The audacious nature of the crime to any ordinary person, is a strong enough case for invoking Central rule to bring back the confidence of people.
What is most disgusting is the manner of taking the ordinary people as merely folks who are called to cast votes once in a while. Mamata Banerjee all of a sudden realised that the rules against rape and murder are not robust enough. She therefore brought in a bill—Aparajita bill—to punish the perpetrators rather than doing so by now.
The Governor at Kolkata’s Raj Bhavan simply forwarded the bill to the President for approval. It never occurred to him that he should have asked the West Bengal government to explain if the legislation proposed triggers the doctrine of repugnancy. The doctrine of repugnancy states that if a provision of a state law conflicts with a provision of a central law, then the central law prevails. The state law becomes void to the extent of the conflict.
It doesn’t matter whether the central law was passed before or after the state law. Without asking for this basic check how can the Governor send the bill for Presidential approval?
Also what was the role of Suvendu Adikari-led opposition in the assembly? Shouldn’t he have asked the state to explain if the doctrine was not triggered by the legislation? By simply not asking the very basic question both the opposition and the Governor are seen by striking doctors as liable as the Mamata government in taking ordinary people for granted.
The RG Kar incident should not take away faith in the three pillars of administration—the state, the legislature, the judiciary. Restoring the same will not be easy but must get done
Sugato Hazra is founder of Poliminds Consult, a content agency for aspiring and practising politicians.