Collective Amnesia: President says many rapes forgotten since Nirbhaya

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, August 28, 2024: President Droupadi Murmu - in her first public statement on the rape and murder of a doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Hospital nearly 20 days ago - declared herself "dismayed and horrified", and criticised the "obnoxious collective amnesia" that allows women to be harassed, brutalised, and killed.

In an exclusive interview to news agency PTI, President Murmu also slammed a "deplorable mindset... that sees the female as a ’lesser human being’... ’less powerful’... ’less capable’... and ’less intelligent’".

"No civilised society can allow daughters and sisters to be subjected to such atrocities... enough is enough," she said, "In 12 years since Nirbhaya incident (the gangrape and murder of a Delhi woman in 2012), countless rapes have been forgotten by society... this ’collective amnesia’ is obnoxious."

"Only societies scared to face history resort to collective amnesia... India must face history squarely. Let us deal with this perversion comprehensively... to curb it right at the beginning," she told PTI.

Ms Murmu also red-flagged (indirectly) other recent horrific incidents of violent crime against women, including the rape of nurses in Uttarakhand and Maharashtra, and the raft of sexual assault allegations against actors and directors in the Malayalam film industry. "... even as students, doctors, and citizens were protesting in Kolkata, criminals remained on prowl elsewhere..." she said Wednesday afternoon.

The killing of a young doctor at the Kolkata hospital - her body was discovered early August 9 and post-mortem reports confirmed barbarous injuries to her legs, hands, and genitals - has triggered furious protests from healthcare workers and civil society activists nationwide.

It has also triggered a political squabble between Bengal’s ruling Trinamool and the the opposition BJP, with even Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s ’on-paper’ ally, the Congress, launching scathing attacks.

The Trinamool and the BJP have exchanged letters; Ms Banerjee demanded tougher laws for women’s safety but the centre pointed out she had failed to implement schemes to deal with such crimes.

The investigation into the RG Kar Hospital murder case has been handed to the CBI. The Calcutta High Court, taking notice of a petition from the doctors’ parents, and their claims of negligence by the cops, ordered the federal agency to take over.