Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
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 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
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deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 73
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
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Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
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Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
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Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
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 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
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deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 74
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Code Context
            if (Configure::read('debug')) {

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-Economic and Political Weekly
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&lt;em&gt;Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that, for people in the political battlefield, the seriousness of this violent crime and the increasing incidence of rape in our towns and villages are of no concern. This has become evident in Kolkata following the gang rape at gunpoint of a 37-year-old woman after midnight on 6 February. The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s response was unconscionable. Instead of sympathising with the woman and urging the police to move on the case, Banerjee turned around and accused the rape survivor of concocting the story and being part of a conspiracy to malign the state government. For the chief minister to have said this assumes significance not just because she is a woman, and hence expected to understand that few women will cry &amp;ldquo;rape&amp;rdquo; without reason, but because she herself has championed cases where women have been victims of violent assault. However, given her response in this case, it would appear that the West Bengal chief minister chooses the victims whose cases she champions according to political compulsions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This particular case is still being played out as the police in Kolkata investigates it. But it brings to attention several important facts in cases of sexual assaults against women. First, when the incident of an individual rape gets embroiled in politics, the victim is forgotten as well as the horrifying nature of the crime. This is not the first time this has happened in West Bengal. When the Left Front government was in power, the roles were reversed in cases around rapes during the Singur and Nandigram agitations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Second, when a middle class urban woman is raped, the trajectory follows a predictable course. The victim is always asked to explain her behaviour. In this case, the woman was asked why she was at a nightclub when she is the mother of two children. The fact that she had separated from her husband was disclosed. That she is an Anglo-Indian was repeated as if that had a special significance. Why is any of this relevant, including what she wore that night or whether she drank alcohol or not? Yet, a minister in Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s government felt no sense of embarrassment in asking such questions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Third, we need to examine the role of the police. When the rape survivor first went to the police, she was mocked and asked embarrassing and lurid details about the rape. The policemen at the station would not take her seriously. Nor did they follow the clearly laid down procedure when recording rape cases. It took her several days to get a first information report (FIR) registered. If this can happen in a police station located in the heart of the West Bengal capital, one can well imagine the situation elsewhere in this country. That the Kolkata police managed to crack the case and have arrested three of the five men allegedly involved speaks more to the commitment and efficiency of a few senior police officers, including a woman, than the beat cops at the police station where the crime was registered, or for that matter the police commissioner who first dismissed the case as fabricated.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
What confidence does such a reaction imbue in women living in Kolkata if both the chief minister and the police commissioner pass judgment on a case even before it has been investigated? If an articulate, educated middle class woman is not taken seriously when she reports rape, what hope is there for poor women who are subjected to sexual assault? Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s insensitive response to the Kolkata rape survivor is completely unacceptable. If she has any interest in reassuring women in West Bengal that they should not fear for their safety, the least she can do is publicly apologise to the woman. As a further gesture, she needs to reprimand the member of her cabinet who questioned the woman&amp;rsquo;s character as well as the police commissioner who was only too ready to dismiss the case.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The Kolkata rape case might disappear from the news in a short while but the reality of the violence that women in India face every day of their lives will not. The latest data from the National Crimes Record Bureau for 2010 records 22,172 cases of rape; the corresponding conviction rate is only 26.6%. Amongst states, Madhya Pradesh has the highest incidence (3,136) followed by West Bengal (2,311). Amongst cities, Delhi has the highest rate (414) followed by Mumbai (201). These figures only represent the reported cases. For every woman who picks up the courage to go to the police to register a case, there are scores who do not dare to approach our law-enforcers. And when lawmakers turn around and cynically use the sexual assault on a woman to further a political agenda, the crime is compounded several times over.
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Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.

When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that,...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p&gt;-Economic and Political Weekly&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that, for people in the political battlefield, the seriousness of this violent crime and the increasing incidence of rape in our towns and villages are of no concern. This has become evident in Kolkata following the gang rape at gunpoint of a 37-year-old woman after midnight on 6 February. The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s response was unconscionable. Instead of sympathising with the woman and urging the police to move on the case, Banerjee turned around and accused the rape survivor of concocting the story and being part of a conspiracy to malign the state government. For the chief minister to have said this assumes significance not just because she is a woman, and hence expected to understand that few women will cry &amp;ldquo;rape&amp;rdquo; without reason, but because she herself has championed cases where women have been victims of violent assault. However, given her response in this case, it would appear that the West Bengal chief minister chooses the victims whose cases she champions according to political compulsions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This particular case is still being played out as the police in Kolkata investigates it. But it brings to attention several important facts in cases of sexual assaults against women. First, when the incident of an individual rape gets embroiled in politics, the victim is forgotten as well as the horrifying nature of the crime. This is not the first time this has happened in West Bengal. When the Left Front government was in power, the roles were reversed in cases around rapes during the Singur and Nandigram agitations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Second, when a middle class urban woman is raped, the trajectory follows a predictable course. The victim is always asked to explain her behaviour. In this case, the woman was asked why she was at a nightclub when she is the mother of two children. The fact that she had separated from her husband was disclosed. That she is an Anglo-Indian was repeated as if that had a special significance. Why is any of this relevant, including what she wore that night or whether she drank alcohol or not? Yet, a minister in Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s government felt no sense of embarrassment in asking such questions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Third, we need to examine the role of the police. When the rape survivor first went to the police, she was mocked and asked embarrassing and lurid details about the rape. The policemen at the station would not take her seriously. Nor did they follow the clearly laid down procedure when recording rape cases. It took her several days to get a first information report (FIR) registered. If this can happen in a police station located in the heart of the West Bengal capital, one can well imagine the situation elsewhere in this country. That the Kolkata police managed to crack the case and have arrested three of the five men allegedly involved speaks more to the commitment and efficiency of a few senior police officers, including a woman, than the beat cops at the police station where the crime was registered, or for that matter the police commissioner who first dismissed the case as fabricated.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What confidence does such a reaction imbue in women living in Kolkata if both the chief minister and the police commissioner pass judgment on a case even before it has been investigated? If an articulate, educated middle class woman is not taken seriously when she reports rape, what hope is there for poor women who are subjected to sexual assault? Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s insensitive response to the Kolkata rape survivor is completely unacceptable. 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&lt;p&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that, for people in the political battlefield, the seriousness of this violent crime and the increasing incidence of rape in our towns and villages are of no concern. This has become evident in Kolkata following the gang rape at gunpoint of a 37-year-old woman after midnight on 6 February. The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s response was unconscionable. Instead of sympathising with the woman and urging the police to move on the case, Banerjee turned around and accused the rape survivor of concocting the story and being part of a conspiracy to malign the state government. For the chief minister to have said this assumes significance not just because she is a woman, and hence expected to understand that few women will cry &amp;ldquo;rape&amp;rdquo; without reason, but because she herself has championed cases where women have been victims of violent assault. However, given her response in this case, it would appear that the West Bengal chief minister chooses the victims whose cases she champions according to political compulsions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This particular case is still being played out as the police in Kolkata investigates it. But it brings to attention several important facts in cases of sexual assaults against women. First, when the incident of an individual rape gets embroiled in politics, the victim is forgotten as well as the horrifying nature of the crime. This is not the first time this has happened in West Bengal. When the Left Front government was in power, the roles were reversed in cases around rapes during the Singur and Nandigram agitations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Second, when a middle class urban woman is raped, the trajectory follows a predictable course. The victim is always asked to explain her behaviour. In this case, the woman was asked why she was at a nightclub when she is the mother of two children. The fact that she had separated from her husband was disclosed. That she is an Anglo-Indian was repeated as if that had a special significance. Why is any of this relevant, including what she wore that night or whether she drank alcohol or not? Yet, a minister in Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s government felt no sense of embarrassment in asking such questions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Third, we need to examine the role of the police. When the rape survivor first went to the police, she was mocked and asked embarrassing and lurid details about the rape. The policemen at the station would not take her seriously. Nor did they follow the clearly laid down procedure when recording rape cases. It took her several days to get a first information report (FIR) registered. If this can happen in a police station located in the heart of the West Bengal capital, one can well imagine the situation elsewhere in this country. That the Kolkata police managed to crack the case and have arrested three of the five men allegedly involved speaks more to the commitment and efficiency of a few senior police officers, including a woman, than the beat cops at the police station where the crime was registered, or for that matter the police commissioner who first dismissed the case as fabricated.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
What confidence does such a reaction imbue in women living in Kolkata if both the chief minister and the police commissioner pass judgment on a case even before it has been investigated? If an articulate, educated middle class woman is not taken seriously when she reports rape, what hope is there for poor women who are subjected to sexual assault? Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s insensitive response to the Kolkata rape survivor is completely unacceptable. If she has any interest in reassuring women in West Bengal that they should not fear for their safety, the least she can do is publicly apologise to the woman. As a further gesture, she needs to reprimand the member of her cabinet who questioned the woman&amp;rsquo;s character as well as the police commissioner who was only too ready to dismiss the case.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The Kolkata rape case might disappear from the news in a short while but the reality of the violence that women in India face every day of their lives will not. The latest data from the National Crimes Record Bureau for 2010 records 22,172 cases of rape; the corresponding conviction rate is only 26.6%. Amongst states, Madhya Pradesh has the highest incidence (3,136) followed by West Bengal (2,311). Amongst cities, Delhi has the highest rate (414) followed by Mumbai (201). These figures only represent the reported cases. For every woman who picks up the courage to go to the police to register a case, there are scores who do not dare to approach our law-enforcers. And when lawmakers turn around and cynically use the sexual assault on a woman to further a political agenda, the crime is compounded several times over.
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
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&amp;nbsp;


Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.

When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that,...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;p&gt;-Economic and Political Weekly&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that, for people in the political battlefield, the seriousness of this violent crime and the increasing incidence of rape in our towns and villages are of no concern. This has become evident in Kolkata following the gang rape at gunpoint of a 37-year-old woman after midnight on 6 February. The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s response was unconscionable. Instead of sympathising with the woman and urging the police to move on the case, Banerjee turned around and accused the rape survivor of concocting the story and being part of a conspiracy to malign the state government. For the chief minister to have said this assumes significance not just because she is a woman, and hence expected to understand that few women will cry &amp;ldquo;rape&amp;rdquo; without reason, but because she herself has championed cases where women have been victims of violent assault. However, given her response in this case, it would appear that the West Bengal chief minister chooses the victims whose cases she champions according to political compulsions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This particular case is still being played out as the police in Kolkata investigates it. But it brings to attention several important facts in cases of sexual assaults against women. First, when the incident of an individual rape gets embroiled in politics, the victim is forgotten as well as the horrifying nature of the crime. This is not the first time this has happened in West Bengal. When the Left Front government was in power, the roles were reversed in cases around rapes during the Singur and Nandigram agitations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Second, when a middle class urban woman is raped, the trajectory follows a predictable course. The victim is always asked to explain her behaviour. In this case, the woman was asked why she was at a nightclub when she is the mother of two children. The fact that she had separated from her husband was disclosed. That she is an Anglo-Indian was repeated as if that had a special significance. Why is any of this relevant, including what she wore that night or whether she drank alcohol or not? Yet, a minister in Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s government felt no sense of embarrassment in asking such questions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Third, we need to examine the role of the police. When the rape survivor first went to the police, she was mocked and asked embarrassing and lurid details about the rape. The policemen at the station would not take her seriously. Nor did they follow the clearly laid down procedure when recording rape cases. It took her several days to get a first information report (FIR) registered. If this can happen in a police station located in the heart of the West Bengal capital, one can well imagine the situation elsewhere in this country. That the Kolkata police managed to crack the case and have arrested three of the five men allegedly involved speaks more to the commitment and efficiency of a few senior police officers, including a woman, than the beat cops at the police station where the crime was registered, or for that matter the police commissioner who first dismissed the case as fabricated.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What confidence does such a reaction imbue in women living in Kolkata if both the chief minister and the police commissioner pass judgment on a case even before it has been investigated? If an articulate, educated middle class woman is not taken seriously when she reports rape, what hope is there for poor women who are subjected to sexual assault? Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s insensitive response to the Kolkata rape survivor is completely unacceptable. If she has any interest in reassuring women in West Bengal that they should not fear for their safety, the least she can do is publicly apologise to the woman. As a further gesture, she needs to reprimand the member of her cabinet who questioned the woman&amp;rsquo;s character as well as the police commissioner who was only too ready to dismiss the case.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Kolkata rape case might disappear from the news in a short while but the reality of the violence that women in India face every day of their lives will not. The latest data from the National Crimes Record Bureau for 2010 records 22,172 cases of rape; the corresponding conviction rate is only 26.6%. Amongst states, Madhya Pradesh has the highest incidence (3,136) followed by West Bengal (2,311). Amongst cities, Delhi has the highest rate (414) followed by Mumbai (201). These figures only represent the reported cases. For every woman who picks up the courage to go to the police to register a case, there are scores who do not dare to approach our law-enforcers. And when lawmakers turn around and cynically use the sexual assault on a woman to further a political agenda, the crime is compounded several times over.&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
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Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.

When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that,..."/>
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                <strong>The Politics of Rape</strong></h1>
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                <p>-Economic and Political Weekly</p><p>&nbsp;</p><div align="justify"><em>Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.<br /></em><br />When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that, for people in the political battlefield, the seriousness of this violent crime and the increasing incidence of rape in our towns and villages are of no concern. This has become evident in Kolkata following the gang rape at gunpoint of a 37-year-old woman after midnight on 6 February. The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee&rsquo;s response was unconscionable. Instead of sympathising with the woman and urging the police to move on the case, Banerjee turned around and accused the rape survivor of concocting the story and being part of a conspiracy to malign the state government. For the chief minister to have said this assumes significance not just because she is a woman, and hence expected to understand that few women will cry &ldquo;rape&rdquo; without reason, but because she herself has championed cases where women have been victims of violent assault. However, given her response in this case, it would appear that the West Bengal chief minister chooses the victims whose cases she champions according to political compulsions.<br /><br />This particular case is still being played out as the police in Kolkata investigates it. But it brings to attention several important facts in cases of sexual assaults against women. First, when the incident of an individual rape gets embroiled in politics, the victim is forgotten as well as the horrifying nature of the crime. This is not the first time this has happened in West Bengal. When the Left Front government was in power, the roles were reversed in cases around rapes during the Singur and Nandigram agitations.<br /><br />Second, when a middle class urban woman is raped, the trajectory follows a predictable course. The victim is always asked to explain her behaviour. In this case, the woman was asked why she was at a nightclub when she is the mother of two children. The fact that she had separated from her husband was disclosed. That she is an Anglo-Indian was repeated as if that had a special significance. Why is any of this relevant, including what she wore that night or whether she drank alcohol or not? Yet, a minister in Mamata Banerjee&rsquo;s government felt no sense of embarrassment in asking such questions.<br /><br />Third, we need to examine the role of the police. When the rape survivor first went to the police, she was mocked and asked embarrassing and lurid details about the rape. The policemen at the station would not take her seriously. Nor did they follow the clearly laid down procedure when recording rape cases. It took her several days to get a first information report (FIR) registered. If this can happen in a police station located in the heart of the West Bengal capital, one can well imagine the situation elsewhere in this country. That the Kolkata police managed to crack the case and have arrested three of the five men allegedly involved speaks more to the commitment and efficiency of a few senior police officers, including a woman, than the beat cops at the police station where the crime was registered, or for that matter the police commissioner who first dismissed the case as fabricated.<br /><br />What confidence does such a reaction imbue in women living in Kolkata if both the chief minister and the police commissioner pass judgment on a case even before it has been investigated? If an articulate, educated middle class woman is not taken seriously when she reports rape, what hope is there for poor women who are subjected to sexual assault? Mamata Banerjee&rsquo;s insensitive response to the Kolkata rape survivor is completely unacceptable. If she has any interest in reassuring women in West Bengal that they should not fear for their safety, the least she can do is publicly apologise to the woman. As a further gesture, she needs to reprimand the member of her cabinet who questioned the woman&rsquo;s character as well as the police commissioner who was only too ready to dismiss the case.<br /><br />The Kolkata rape case might disappear from the news in a short while but the reality of the violence that women in India face every day of their lives will not. The latest data from the National Crimes Record Bureau for 2010 records 22,172 cases of rape; the corresponding conviction rate is only 26.6%. Amongst states, Madhya Pradesh has the highest incidence (3,136) followed by West Bengal (2,311). Amongst cities, Delhi has the highest rate (414) followed by Mumbai (201). These figures only represent the reported cases. For every woman who picks up the courage to go to the police to register a case, there are scores who do not dare to approach our law-enforcers. And when lawmakers turn around and cynically use the sexual assault on a woman to further a political agenda, the crime is compounded several times over.</div>               </font>
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-Economic and Political Weekly
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&amp;nbsp;
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&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that, for people in the political battlefield, the seriousness of this violent crime and the increasing incidence of rape in our towns and villages are of no concern. This has become evident in Kolkata following the gang rape at gunpoint of a 37-year-old woman after midnight on 6 February. The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s response was unconscionable. Instead of sympathising with the woman and urging the police to move on the case, Banerjee turned around and accused the rape survivor of concocting the story and being part of a conspiracy to malign the state government. For the chief minister to have said this assumes significance not just because she is a woman, and hence expected to understand that few women will cry &amp;ldquo;rape&amp;rdquo; without reason, but because she herself has championed cases where women have been victims of violent assault. However, given her response in this case, it would appear that the West Bengal chief minister chooses the victims whose cases she champions according to political compulsions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This particular case is still being played out as the police in Kolkata investigates it. But it brings to attention several important facts in cases of sexual assaults against women. First, when the incident of an individual rape gets embroiled in politics, the victim is forgotten as well as the horrifying nature of the crime. This is not the first time this has happened in West Bengal. When the Left Front government was in power, the roles were reversed in cases around rapes during the Singur and Nandigram agitations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Second, when a middle class urban woman is raped, the trajectory follows a predictable course. The victim is always asked to explain her behaviour. In this case, the woman was asked why she was at a nightclub when she is the mother of two children. The fact that she had separated from her husband was disclosed. That she is an Anglo-Indian was repeated as if that had a special significance. Why is any of this relevant, including what she wore that night or whether she drank alcohol or not? Yet, a minister in Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s government felt no sense of embarrassment in asking such questions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Third, we need to examine the role of the police. When the rape survivor first went to the police, she was mocked and asked embarrassing and lurid details about the rape. The policemen at the station would not take her seriously. Nor did they follow the clearly laid down procedure when recording rape cases. It took her several days to get a first information report (FIR) registered. If this can happen in a police station located in the heart of the West Bengal capital, one can well imagine the situation elsewhere in this country. That the Kolkata police managed to crack the case and have arrested three of the five men allegedly involved speaks more to the commitment and efficiency of a few senior police officers, including a woman, than the beat cops at the police station where the crime was registered, or for that matter the police commissioner who first dismissed the case as fabricated.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
What confidence does such a reaction imbue in women living in Kolkata if both the chief minister and the police commissioner pass judgment on a case even before it has been investigated? If an articulate, educated middle class woman is not taken seriously when she reports rape, what hope is there for poor women who are subjected to sexual assault? Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s insensitive response to the Kolkata rape survivor is completely unacceptable. If she has any interest in reassuring women in West Bengal that they should not fear for their safety, the least she can do is publicly apologise to the woman. As a further gesture, she needs to reprimand the member of her cabinet who questioned the woman&amp;rsquo;s character as well as the police commissioner who was only too ready to dismiss the case.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The Kolkata rape case might disappear from the news in a short while but the reality of the violence that women in India face every day of their lives will not. The latest data from the National Crimes Record Bureau for 2010 records 22,172 cases of rape; the corresponding conviction rate is only 26.6%. Amongst states, Madhya Pradesh has the highest incidence (3,136) followed by West Bengal (2,311). Amongst cities, Delhi has the highest rate (414) followed by Mumbai (201). These figures only represent the reported cases. For every woman who picks up the courage to go to the police to register a case, there are scores who do not dare to approach our law-enforcers. And when lawmakers turn around and cynically use the sexual assault on a woman to further a political agenda, the crime is compounded several times over.
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-Economic and Political Weekly


&amp;nbsp;


Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.

When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that,...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p&gt;-Economic and Political Weekly&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that, for people in the political battlefield, the seriousness of this violent crime and the increasing incidence of rape in our towns and villages are of no concern. This has become evident in Kolkata following the gang rape at gunpoint of a 37-year-old woman after midnight on 6 February. The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s response was unconscionable. Instead of sympathising with the woman and urging the police to move on the case, Banerjee turned around and accused the rape survivor of concocting the story and being part of a conspiracy to malign the state government. For the chief minister to have said this assumes significance not just because she is a woman, and hence expected to understand that few women will cry &amp;ldquo;rape&amp;rdquo; without reason, but because she herself has championed cases where women have been victims of violent assault. However, given her response in this case, it would appear that the West Bengal chief minister chooses the victims whose cases she champions according to political compulsions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This particular case is still being played out as the police in Kolkata investigates it. But it brings to attention several important facts in cases of sexual assaults against women. First, when the incident of an individual rape gets embroiled in politics, the victim is forgotten as well as the horrifying nature of the crime. This is not the first time this has happened in West Bengal. When the Left Front government was in power, the roles were reversed in cases around rapes during the Singur and Nandigram agitations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Second, when a middle class urban woman is raped, the trajectory follows a predictable course. The victim is always asked to explain her behaviour. In this case, the woman was asked why she was at a nightclub when she is the mother of two children. The fact that she had separated from her husband was disclosed. That she is an Anglo-Indian was repeated as if that had a special significance. Why is any of this relevant, including what she wore that night or whether she drank alcohol or not? Yet, a minister in Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s government felt no sense of embarrassment in asking such questions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Third, we need to examine the role of the police. When the rape survivor first went to the police, she was mocked and asked embarrassing and lurid details about the rape. The policemen at the station would not take her seriously. Nor did they follow the clearly laid down procedure when recording rape cases. It took her several days to get a first information report (FIR) registered. If this can happen in a police station located in the heart of the West Bengal capital, one can well imagine the situation elsewhere in this country. That the Kolkata police managed to crack the case and have arrested three of the five men allegedly involved speaks more to the commitment and efficiency of a few senior police officers, including a woman, than the beat cops at the police station where the crime was registered, or for that matter the police commissioner who first dismissed the case as fabricated.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What confidence does such a reaction imbue in women living in Kolkata if both the chief minister and the police commissioner pass judgment on a case even before it has been investigated? If an articulate, educated middle class woman is not taken seriously when she reports rape, what hope is there for poor women who are subjected to sexual assault? Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s insensitive response to the Kolkata rape survivor is completely unacceptable. If she has any interest in reassuring women in West Bengal that they should not fear for their safety, the least she can do is publicly apologise to the woman. As a further gesture, she needs to reprimand the member of her cabinet who questioned the woman&amp;rsquo;s character as well as the police commissioner who was only too ready to dismiss the case.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Kolkata rape case might disappear from the news in a short while but the reality of the violence that women in India face every day of their lives will not. The latest data from the National Crimes Record Bureau for 2010 records 22,172 cases of rape; the corresponding conviction rate is only 26.6%. Amongst states, Madhya Pradesh has the highest incidence (3,136) followed by West Bengal (2,311). Amongst cities, Delhi has the highest rate (414) followed by Mumbai (201). These figures only represent the reported cases. For every woman who picks up the courage to go to the police to register a case, there are scores who do not dare to approach our law-enforcers. And when lawmakers turn around and cynically use the sexual assault on a woman to further a political agenda, the crime is compounded several times over.&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
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-Economic and Political Weekly
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&lt;em&gt;Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that, for people in the political battlefield, the seriousness of this violent crime and the increasing incidence of rape in our towns and villages are of no concern. This has become evident in Kolkata following the gang rape at gunpoint of a 37-year-old woman after midnight on 6 February. The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s response was unconscionable. Instead of sympathising with the woman and urging the police to move on the case, Banerjee turned around and accused the rape survivor of concocting the story and being part of a conspiracy to malign the state government. For the chief minister to have said this assumes significance not just because she is a woman, and hence expected to understand that few women will cry &amp;ldquo;rape&amp;rdquo; without reason, but because she herself has championed cases where women have been victims of violent assault. However, given her response in this case, it would appear that the West Bengal chief minister chooses the victims whose cases she champions according to political compulsions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This particular case is still being played out as the police in Kolkata investigates it. But it brings to attention several important facts in cases of sexual assaults against women. First, when the incident of an individual rape gets embroiled in politics, the victim is forgotten as well as the horrifying nature of the crime. This is not the first time this has happened in West Bengal. When the Left Front government was in power, the roles were reversed in cases around rapes during the Singur and Nandigram agitations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Second, when a middle class urban woman is raped, the trajectory follows a predictable course. The victim is always asked to explain her behaviour. In this case, the woman was asked why she was at a nightclub when she is the mother of two children. The fact that she had separated from her husband was disclosed. That she is an Anglo-Indian was repeated as if that had a special significance. Why is any of this relevant, including what she wore that night or whether she drank alcohol or not? Yet, a minister in Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s government felt no sense of embarrassment in asking such questions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Third, we need to examine the role of the police. When the rape survivor first went to the police, she was mocked and asked embarrassing and lurid details about the rape. The policemen at the station would not take her seriously. Nor did they follow the clearly laid down procedure when recording rape cases. It took her several days to get a first information report (FIR) registered. If this can happen in a police station located in the heart of the West Bengal capital, one can well imagine the situation elsewhere in this country. That the Kolkata police managed to crack the case and have arrested three of the five men allegedly involved speaks more to the commitment and efficiency of a few senior police officers, including a woman, than the beat cops at the police station where the crime was registered, or for that matter the police commissioner who first dismissed the case as fabricated.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
What confidence does such a reaction imbue in women living in Kolkata if both the chief minister and the police commissioner pass judgment on a case even before it has been investigated? If an articulate, educated middle class woman is not taken seriously when she reports rape, what hope is there for poor women who are subjected to sexual assault? Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s insensitive response to the Kolkata rape survivor is completely unacceptable. If she has any interest in reassuring women in West Bengal that they should not fear for their safety, the least she can do is publicly apologise to the woman. As a further gesture, she needs to reprimand the member of her cabinet who questioned the woman&amp;rsquo;s character as well as the police commissioner who was only too ready to dismiss the case.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The Kolkata rape case might disappear from the news in a short while but the reality of the violence that women in India face every day of their lives will not. The latest data from the National Crimes Record Bureau for 2010 records 22,172 cases of rape; the corresponding conviction rate is only 26.6%. Amongst states, Madhya Pradesh has the highest incidence (3,136) followed by West Bengal (2,311). Amongst cities, Delhi has the highest rate (414) followed by Mumbai (201). These figures only represent the reported cases. For every woman who picks up the courage to go to the police to register a case, there are scores who do not dare to approach our law-enforcers. And when lawmakers turn around and cynically use the sexual assault on a woman to further a political agenda, the crime is compounded several times over.
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-Economic and Political Weekly


&amp;nbsp;


Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.

When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that,...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;p&gt;-Economic and Political Weekly&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that, for people in the political battlefield, the seriousness of this violent crime and the increasing incidence of rape in our towns and villages are of no concern. This has become evident in Kolkata following the gang rape at gunpoint of a 37-year-old woman after midnight on 6 February. The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s response was unconscionable. Instead of sympathising with the woman and urging the police to move on the case, Banerjee turned around and accused the rape survivor of concocting the story and being part of a conspiracy to malign the state government. 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The policemen at the station would not take her seriously. Nor did they follow the clearly laid down procedure when recording rape cases. It took her several days to get a first information report (FIR) registered. If this can happen in a police station located in the heart of the West Bengal capital, one can well imagine the situation elsewhere in this country. That the Kolkata police managed to crack the case and have arrested three of the five men allegedly involved speaks more to the commitment and efficiency of a few senior police officers, including a woman, than the beat cops at the police station where the crime was registered, or for that matter the police commissioner who first dismissed the case as fabricated.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What confidence does such a reaction imbue in women living in Kolkata if both the chief minister and the police commissioner pass judgment on a case even before it has been investigated? If an articulate, educated middle class woman is not taken seriously when she reports rape, what hope is there for poor women who are subjected to sexual assault? Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s insensitive response to the Kolkata rape survivor is completely unacceptable. If she has any interest in reassuring women in West Bengal that they should not fear for their safety, the least she can do is publicly apologise to the woman. As a further gesture, she needs to reprimand the member of her cabinet who questioned the woman&amp;rsquo;s character as well as the police commissioner who was only too ready to dismiss the case.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Kolkata rape case might disappear from the news in a short while but the reality of the violence that women in India face every day of their lives will not. The latest data from the National Crimes Record Bureau for 2010 records 22,172 cases of rape; the corresponding conviction rate is only 26.6%. Amongst states, Madhya Pradesh has the highest incidence (3,136) followed by West Bengal (2,311). Amongst cities, Delhi has the highest rate (414) followed by Mumbai (201). These figures only represent the reported cases. For every woman who picks up the courage to go to the police to register a case, there are scores who do not dare to approach our law-enforcers. And when lawmakers turn around and cynically use the sexual assault on a woman to further a political agenda, the crime is compounded several times over.&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
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Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.

When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that,..."/>
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                <strong>The Politics of Rape</strong></h1>
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                <p>-Economic and Political Weekly</p><p>&nbsp;</p><div align="justify"><em>Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.<br /></em><br />When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that, for people in the political battlefield, the seriousness of this violent crime and the increasing incidence of rape in our towns and villages are of no concern. This has become evident in Kolkata following the gang rape at gunpoint of a 37-year-old woman after midnight on 6 February. The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee&rsquo;s response was unconscionable. Instead of sympathising with the woman and urging the police to move on the case, Banerjee turned around and accused the rape survivor of concocting the story and being part of a conspiracy to malign the state government. For the chief minister to have said this assumes significance not just because she is a woman, and hence expected to understand that few women will cry &ldquo;rape&rdquo; without reason, but because she herself has championed cases where women have been victims of violent assault. However, given her response in this case, it would appear that the West Bengal chief minister chooses the victims whose cases she champions according to political compulsions.<br /><br />This particular case is still being played out as the police in Kolkata investigates it. But it brings to attention several important facts in cases of sexual assaults against women. First, when the incident of an individual rape gets embroiled in politics, the victim is forgotten as well as the horrifying nature of the crime. This is not the first time this has happened in West Bengal. When the Left Front government was in power, the roles were reversed in cases around rapes during the Singur and Nandigram agitations.<br /><br />Second, when a middle class urban woman is raped, the trajectory follows a predictable course. The victim is always asked to explain her behaviour. In this case, the woman was asked why she was at a nightclub when she is the mother of two children. The fact that she had separated from her husband was disclosed. That she is an Anglo-Indian was repeated as if that had a special significance. Why is any of this relevant, including what she wore that night or whether she drank alcohol or not? Yet, a minister in Mamata Banerjee&rsquo;s government felt no sense of embarrassment in asking such questions.<br /><br />Third, we need to examine the role of the police. When the rape survivor first went to the police, she was mocked and asked embarrassing and lurid details about the rape. The policemen at the station would not take her seriously. Nor did they follow the clearly laid down procedure when recording rape cases. It took her several days to get a first information report (FIR) registered. If this can happen in a police station located in the heart of the West Bengal capital, one can well imagine the situation elsewhere in this country. That the Kolkata police managed to crack the case and have arrested three of the five men allegedly involved speaks more to the commitment and efficiency of a few senior police officers, including a woman, than the beat cops at the police station where the crime was registered, or for that matter the police commissioner who first dismissed the case as fabricated.<br /><br />What confidence does such a reaction imbue in women living in Kolkata if both the chief minister and the police commissioner pass judgment on a case even before it has been investigated? If an articulate, educated middle class woman is not taken seriously when she reports rape, what hope is there for poor women who are subjected to sexual assault? Mamata Banerjee&rsquo;s insensitive response to the Kolkata rape survivor is completely unacceptable. If she has any interest in reassuring women in West Bengal that they should not fear for their safety, the least she can do is publicly apologise to the woman. As a further gesture, she needs to reprimand the member of her cabinet who questioned the woman&rsquo;s character as well as the police commissioner who was only too ready to dismiss the case.<br /><br />The Kolkata rape case might disappear from the news in a short while but the reality of the violence that women in India face every day of their lives will not. The latest data from the National Crimes Record Bureau for 2010 records 22,172 cases of rape; the corresponding conviction rate is only 26.6%. Amongst states, Madhya Pradesh has the highest incidence (3,136) followed by West Bengal (2,311). Amongst cities, Delhi has the highest rate (414) followed by Mumbai (201). These figures only represent the reported cases. For every woman who picks up the courage to go to the police to register a case, there are scores who do not dare to approach our law-enforcers. And when lawmakers turn around and cynically use the sexual assault on a woman to further a political agenda, the crime is compounded several times over.</div>               </font>
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-Economic and Political Weekly
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&lt;em&gt;Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that, for people in the political battlefield, the seriousness of this violent crime and the increasing incidence of rape in our towns and villages are of no concern. This has become evident in Kolkata following the gang rape at gunpoint of a 37-year-old woman after midnight on 6 February. The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s response was unconscionable. Instead of sympathising with the woman and urging the police to move on the case, Banerjee turned around and accused the rape survivor of concocting the story and being part of a conspiracy to malign the state government. For the chief minister to have said this assumes significance not just because she is a woman, and hence expected to understand that few women will cry &amp;ldquo;rape&amp;rdquo; without reason, but because she herself has championed cases where women have been victims of violent assault. However, given her response in this case, it would appear that the West Bengal chief minister chooses the victims whose cases she champions according to political compulsions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This particular case is still being played out as the police in Kolkata investigates it. But it brings to attention several important facts in cases of sexual assaults against women. First, when the incident of an individual rape gets embroiled in politics, the victim is forgotten as well as the horrifying nature of the crime. This is not the first time this has happened in West Bengal. When the Left Front government was in power, the roles were reversed in cases around rapes during the Singur and Nandigram agitations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Second, when a middle class urban woman is raped, the trajectory follows a predictable course. The victim is always asked to explain her behaviour. In this case, the woman was asked why she was at a nightclub when she is the mother of two children. The fact that she had separated from her husband was disclosed. That she is an Anglo-Indian was repeated as if that had a special significance. Why is any of this relevant, including what she wore that night or whether she drank alcohol or not? Yet, a minister in Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s government felt no sense of embarrassment in asking such questions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Third, we need to examine the role of the police. When the rape survivor first went to the police, she was mocked and asked embarrassing and lurid details about the rape. The policemen at the station would not take her seriously. Nor did they follow the clearly laid down procedure when recording rape cases. It took her several days to get a first information report (FIR) registered. If this can happen in a police station located in the heart of the West Bengal capital, one can well imagine the situation elsewhere in this country. That the Kolkata police managed to crack the case and have arrested three of the five men allegedly involved speaks more to the commitment and efficiency of a few senior police officers, including a woman, than the beat cops at the police station where the crime was registered, or for that matter the police commissioner who first dismissed the case as fabricated.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
What confidence does such a reaction imbue in women living in Kolkata if both the chief minister and the police commissioner pass judgment on a case even before it has been investigated? If an articulate, educated middle class woman is not taken seriously when she reports rape, what hope is there for poor women who are subjected to sexual assault? Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s insensitive response to the Kolkata rape survivor is completely unacceptable. If she has any interest in reassuring women in West Bengal that they should not fear for their safety, the least she can do is publicly apologise to the woman. As a further gesture, she needs to reprimand the member of her cabinet who questioned the woman&amp;rsquo;s character as well as the police commissioner who was only too ready to dismiss the case.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The Kolkata rape case might disappear from the news in a short while but the reality of the violence that women in India face every day of their lives will not. The latest data from the National Crimes Record Bureau for 2010 records 22,172 cases of rape; the corresponding conviction rate is only 26.6%. Amongst states, Madhya Pradesh has the highest incidence (3,136) followed by West Bengal (2,311). Amongst cities, Delhi has the highest rate (414) followed by Mumbai (201). These figures only represent the reported cases. For every woman who picks up the courage to go to the police to register a case, there are scores who do not dare to approach our law-enforcers. And when lawmakers turn around and cynically use the sexual assault on a woman to further a political agenda, the crime is compounded several times over.
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Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.

When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that,...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p&gt;-Economic and Political Weekly&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that, for people in the political battlefield, the seriousness of this violent crime and the increasing incidence of rape in our towns and villages are of no concern. This has become evident in Kolkata following the gang rape at gunpoint of a 37-year-old woman after midnight on 6 February. The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s response was unconscionable. Instead of sympathising with the woman and urging the police to move on the case, Banerjee turned around and accused the rape survivor of concocting the story and being part of a conspiracy to malign the state government. For the chief minister to have said this assumes significance not just because she is a woman, and hence expected to understand that few women will cry &amp;ldquo;rape&amp;rdquo; without reason, but because she herself has championed cases where women have been victims of violent assault. However, given her response in this case, it would appear that the West Bengal chief minister chooses the victims whose cases she champions according to political compulsions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This particular case is still being played out as the police in Kolkata investigates it. But it brings to attention several important facts in cases of sexual assaults against women. First, when the incident of an individual rape gets embroiled in politics, the victim is forgotten as well as the horrifying nature of the crime. This is not the first time this has happened in West Bengal. When the Left Front government was in power, the roles were reversed in cases around rapes during the Singur and Nandigram agitations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Second, when a middle class urban woman is raped, the trajectory follows a predictable course. The victim is always asked to explain her behaviour. In this case, the woman was asked why she was at a nightclub when she is the mother of two children. The fact that she had separated from her husband was disclosed. That she is an Anglo-Indian was repeated as if that had a special significance. Why is any of this relevant, including what she wore that night or whether she drank alcohol or not? Yet, a minister in Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s government felt no sense of embarrassment in asking such questions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Third, we need to examine the role of the police. When the rape survivor first went to the police, she was mocked and asked embarrassing and lurid details about the rape. The policemen at the station would not take her seriously. Nor did they follow the clearly laid down procedure when recording rape cases. It took her several days to get a first information report (FIR) registered. If this can happen in a police station located in the heart of the West Bengal capital, one can well imagine the situation elsewhere in this country. 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&amp;nbsp;
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&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that, for people in the political battlefield, the seriousness of this violent crime and the increasing incidence of rape in our towns and villages are of no concern. This has become evident in Kolkata following the gang rape at gunpoint of a 37-year-old woman after midnight on 6 February. The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s response was unconscionable. Instead of sympathising with the woman and urging the police to move on the case, Banerjee turned around and accused the rape survivor of concocting the story and being part of a conspiracy to malign the state government. For the chief minister to have said this assumes significance not just because she is a woman, and hence expected to understand that few women will cry &amp;ldquo;rape&amp;rdquo; without reason, but because she herself has championed cases where women have been victims of violent assault. However, given her response in this case, it would appear that the West Bengal chief minister chooses the victims whose cases she champions according to political compulsions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This particular case is still being played out as the police in Kolkata investigates it. But it brings to attention several important facts in cases of sexual assaults against women. First, when the incident of an individual rape gets embroiled in politics, the victim is forgotten as well as the horrifying nature of the crime. This is not the first time this has happened in West Bengal. When the Left Front government was in power, the roles were reversed in cases around rapes during the Singur and Nandigram agitations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Second, when a middle class urban woman is raped, the trajectory follows a predictable course. The victim is always asked to explain her behaviour. In this case, the woman was asked why she was at a nightclub when she is the mother of two children. The fact that she had separated from her husband was disclosed. That she is an Anglo-Indian was repeated as if that had a special significance. Why is any of this relevant, including what she wore that night or whether she drank alcohol or not? Yet, a minister in Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s government felt no sense of embarrassment in asking such questions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Third, we need to examine the role of the police. When the rape survivor first went to the police, she was mocked and asked embarrassing and lurid details about the rape. The policemen at the station would not take her seriously. Nor did they follow the clearly laid down procedure when recording rape cases. It took her several days to get a first information report (FIR) registered. If this can happen in a police station located in the heart of the West Bengal capital, one can well imagine the situation elsewhere in this country. That the Kolkata police managed to crack the case and have arrested three of the five men allegedly involved speaks more to the commitment and efficiency of a few senior police officers, including a woman, than the beat cops at the police station where the crime was registered, or for that matter the police commissioner who first dismissed the case as fabricated.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
What confidence does such a reaction imbue in women living in Kolkata if both the chief minister and the police commissioner pass judgment on a case even before it has been investigated? If an articulate, educated middle class woman is not taken seriously when she reports rape, what hope is there for poor women who are subjected to sexual assault? Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s insensitive response to the Kolkata rape survivor is completely unacceptable. If she has any interest in reassuring women in West Bengal that they should not fear for their safety, the least she can do is publicly apologise to the woman. As a further gesture, she needs to reprimand the member of her cabinet who questioned the woman&amp;rsquo;s character as well as the police commissioner who was only too ready to dismiss the case.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The Kolkata rape case might disappear from the news in a short while but the reality of the violence that women in India face every day of their lives will not. The latest data from the National Crimes Record Bureau for 2010 records 22,172 cases of rape; the corresponding conviction rate is only 26.6%. Amongst states, Madhya Pradesh has the highest incidence (3,136) followed by West Bengal (2,311). Amongst cities, Delhi has the highest rate (414) followed by Mumbai (201). These figures only represent the reported cases. For every woman who picks up the courage to go to the police to register a case, there are scores who do not dare to approach our law-enforcers. And when lawmakers turn around and cynically use the sexual assault on a woman to further a political agenda, the crime is compounded several times over.
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
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Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.

When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that,...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;p&gt;-Economic and Political Weekly&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that, for people in the political battlefield, the seriousness of this violent crime and the increasing incidence of rape in our towns and villages are of no concern. This has become evident in Kolkata following the gang rape at gunpoint of a 37-year-old woman after midnight on 6 February. The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s response was unconscionable. Instead of sympathising with the woman and urging the police to move on the case, Banerjee turned around and accused the rape survivor of concocting the story and being part of a conspiracy to malign the state government. For the chief minister to have said this assumes significance not just because she is a woman, and hence expected to understand that few women will cry &amp;ldquo;rape&amp;rdquo; without reason, but because she herself has championed cases where women have been victims of violent assault. However, given her response in this case, it would appear that the West Bengal chief minister chooses the victims whose cases she champions according to political compulsions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This particular case is still being played out as the police in Kolkata investigates it. But it brings to attention several important facts in cases of sexual assaults against women. First, when the incident of an individual rape gets embroiled in politics, the victim is forgotten as well as the horrifying nature of the crime. This is not the first time this has happened in West Bengal. When the Left Front government was in power, the roles were reversed in cases around rapes during the Singur and Nandigram agitations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Second, when a middle class urban woman is raped, the trajectory follows a predictable course. The victim is always asked to explain her behaviour. In this case, the woman was asked why she was at a nightclub when she is the mother of two children. The fact that she had separated from her husband was disclosed. That she is an Anglo-Indian was repeated as if that had a special significance. Why is any of this relevant, including what she wore that night or whether she drank alcohol or not? Yet, a minister in Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s government felt no sense of embarrassment in asking such questions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Third, we need to examine the role of the police. When the rape survivor first went to the police, she was mocked and asked embarrassing and lurid details about the rape. The policemen at the station would not take her seriously. Nor did they follow the clearly laid down procedure when recording rape cases. It took her several days to get a first information report (FIR) registered. If this can happen in a police station located in the heart of the West Bengal capital, one can well imagine the situation elsewhere in this country. That the Kolkata police managed to crack the case and have arrested three of the five men allegedly involved speaks more to the commitment and efficiency of a few senior police officers, including a woman, than the beat cops at the police station where the crime was registered, or for that matter the police commissioner who first dismissed the case as fabricated.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What confidence does such a reaction imbue in women living in Kolkata if both the chief minister and the police commissioner pass judgment on a case even before it has been investigated? If an articulate, educated middle class woman is not taken seriously when she reports rape, what hope is there for poor women who are subjected to sexual assault? Mamata Banerjee&amp;rsquo;s insensitive response to the Kolkata rape survivor is completely unacceptable. If she has any interest in reassuring women in West Bengal that they should not fear for their safety, the least she can do is publicly apologise to the woman. As a further gesture, she needs to reprimand the member of her cabinet who questioned the woman&amp;rsquo;s character as well as the police commissioner who was only too ready to dismiss the case.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Kolkata rape case might disappear from the news in a short while but the reality of the violence that women in India face every day of their lives will not. The latest data from the National Crimes Record Bureau for 2010 records 22,172 cases of rape; the corresponding conviction rate is only 26.6%. 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-Economic and Political Weekly


&nbsp;


Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.

When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that,..."/>
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                <strong>The Politics of Rape</strong></h1>
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                <p>-Economic and Political Weekly</p><p>&nbsp;</p><div align="justify"><em>Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.<br /></em><br />When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that, for people in the political battlefield, the seriousness of this violent crime and the increasing incidence of rape in our towns and villages are of no concern. This has become evident in Kolkata following the gang rape at gunpoint of a 37-year-old woman after midnight on 6 February. The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee&rsquo;s response was unconscionable. Instead of sympathising with the woman and urging the police to move on the case, Banerjee turned around and accused the rape survivor of concocting the story and being part of a conspiracy to malign the state government. For the chief minister to have said this assumes significance not just because she is a woman, and hence expected to understand that few women will cry &ldquo;rape&rdquo; without reason, but because she herself has championed cases where women have been victims of violent assault. However, given her response in this case, it would appear that the West Bengal chief minister chooses the victims whose cases she champions according to political compulsions.<br /><br />This particular case is still being played out as the police in Kolkata investigates it. But it brings to attention several important facts in cases of sexual assaults against women. First, when the incident of an individual rape gets embroiled in politics, the victim is forgotten as well as the horrifying nature of the crime. This is not the first time this has happened in West Bengal. When the Left Front government was in power, the roles were reversed in cases around rapes during the Singur and Nandigram agitations.<br /><br />Second, when a middle class urban woman is raped, the trajectory follows a predictable course. The victim is always asked to explain her behaviour. In this case, the woman was asked why she was at a nightclub when she is the mother of two children. The fact that she had separated from her husband was disclosed. That she is an Anglo-Indian was repeated as if that had a special significance. Why is any of this relevant, including what she wore that night or whether she drank alcohol or not? Yet, a minister in Mamata Banerjee&rsquo;s government felt no sense of embarrassment in asking such questions.<br /><br />Third, we need to examine the role of the police. When the rape survivor first went to the police, she was mocked and asked embarrassing and lurid details about the rape. The policemen at the station would not take her seriously. Nor did they follow the clearly laid down procedure when recording rape cases. It took her several days to get a first information report (FIR) registered. If this can happen in a police station located in the heart of the West Bengal capital, one can well imagine the situation elsewhere in this country. That the Kolkata police managed to crack the case and have arrested three of the five men allegedly involved speaks more to the commitment and efficiency of a few senior police officers, including a woman, than the beat cops at the police station where the crime was registered, or for that matter the police commissioner who first dismissed the case as fabricated.<br /><br />What confidence does such a reaction imbue in women living in Kolkata if both the chief minister and the police commissioner pass judgment on a case even before it has been investigated? If an articulate, educated middle class woman is not taken seriously when she reports rape, what hope is there for poor women who are subjected to sexual assault? Mamata Banerjee&rsquo;s insensitive response to the Kolkata rape survivor is completely unacceptable. If she has any interest in reassuring women in West Bengal that they should not fear for their safety, the least she can do is publicly apologise to the woman. As a further gesture, she needs to reprimand the member of her cabinet who questioned the woman&rsquo;s character as well as the police commissioner who was only too ready to dismiss the case.<br /><br />The Kolkata rape case might disappear from the news in a short while but the reality of the violence that women in India face every day of their lives will not. The latest data from the National Crimes Record Bureau for 2010 records 22,172 cases of rape; the corresponding conviction rate is only 26.6%. Amongst states, Madhya Pradesh has the highest incidence (3,136) followed by West Bengal (2,311). Amongst cities, Delhi has the highest rate (414) followed by Mumbai (201). These figures only represent the reported cases. For every woman who picks up the courage to go to the police to register a case, there are scores who do not dare to approach our law-enforcers. And when lawmakers turn around and cynically use the sexual assault on a woman to further a political agenda, the crime is compounded several times over.</div>               </font>
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-Economic and Political Weekly
</p>
<p>
&nbsp;
</p>
<div align="justify">
<em>Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.<br />
</em><br />
When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that, for people in the political battlefield, the seriousness of this violent crime and the increasing incidence of rape in our towns and villages are of no concern. This has become evident in Kolkata following the gang rape at gunpoint of a 37-year-old woman after midnight on 6 February. The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee&rsquo;s response was unconscionable. Instead of sympathising with the woman and urging the police to move on the case, Banerjee turned around and accused the rape survivor of concocting the story and being part of a conspiracy to malign the state government. For the chief minister to have said this assumes significance not just because she is a woman, and hence expected to understand that few women will cry &ldquo;rape&rdquo; without reason, but because she herself has championed cases where women have been victims of violent assault. However, given her response in this case, it would appear that the West Bengal chief minister chooses the victims whose cases she champions according to political compulsions.<br />
<br />
This particular case is still being played out as the police in Kolkata investigates it. But it brings to attention several important facts in cases of sexual assaults against women. First, when the incident of an individual rape gets embroiled in politics, the victim is forgotten as well as the horrifying nature of the crime. This is not the first time this has happened in West Bengal. When the Left Front government was in power, the roles were reversed in cases around rapes during the Singur and Nandigram agitations.<br />
<br />
Second, when a middle class urban woman is raped, the trajectory follows a predictable course. The victim is always asked to explain her behaviour. In this case, the woman was asked why she was at a nightclub when she is the mother of two children. The fact that she had separated from her husband was disclosed. That she is an Anglo-Indian was repeated as if that had a special significance. Why is any of this relevant, including what she wore that night or whether she drank alcohol or not? Yet, a minister in Mamata Banerjee&rsquo;s government felt no sense of embarrassment in asking such questions.<br />
<br />
Third, we need to examine the role of the police. When the rape survivor first went to the police, she was mocked and asked embarrassing and lurid details about the rape. The policemen at the station would not take her seriously. Nor did they follow the clearly laid down procedure when recording rape cases. It took her several days to get a first information report (FIR) registered. If this can happen in a police station located in the heart of the West Bengal capital, one can well imagine the situation elsewhere in this country. That the Kolkata police managed to crack the case and have arrested three of the five men allegedly involved speaks more to the commitment and efficiency of a few senior police officers, including a woman, than the beat cops at the police station where the crime was registered, or for that matter the police commissioner who first dismissed the case as fabricated.<br />
<br />
What confidence does such a reaction imbue in women living in Kolkata if both the chief minister and the police commissioner pass judgment on a case even before it has been investigated? If an articulate, educated middle class woman is not taken seriously when she reports rape, what hope is there for poor women who are subjected to sexual assault? Mamata Banerjee&rsquo;s insensitive response to the Kolkata rape survivor is completely unacceptable. If she has any interest in reassuring women in West Bengal that they should not fear for their safety, the least she can do is publicly apologise to the woman. As a further gesture, she needs to reprimand the member of her cabinet who questioned the woman&rsquo;s character as well as the police commissioner who was only too ready to dismiss the case.<br />
<br />
The Kolkata rape case might disappear from the news in a short while but the reality of the violence that women in India face every day of their lives will not. The latest data from the National Crimes Record Bureau for 2010 records 22,172 cases of rape; the corresponding conviction rate is only 26.6%. Amongst states, Madhya Pradesh has the highest incidence (3,136) followed by West Bengal (2,311). Amongst cities, Delhi has the highest rate (414) followed by Mumbai (201). These figures only represent the reported cases. For every woman who picks up the courage to go to the police to register a case, there are scores who do not dare to approach our law-enforcers. And when lawmakers turn around and cynically use the sexual assault on a woman to further a political agenda, the crime is compounded several times over.
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&nbsp;


Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.

When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that,...',
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For the chief minister to have said this assumes significance not just because she is a woman, and hence expected to understand that few women will cry &ldquo;rape&rdquo; without reason, but because she herself has championed cases where women have been victims of violent assault. However, given her response in this case, it would appear that the West Bengal chief minister chooses the victims whose cases she champions according to political compulsions.<br /><br />This particular case is still being played out as the police in Kolkata investigates it. But it brings to attention several important facts in cases of sexual assaults against women. First, when the incident of an individual rape gets embroiled in politics, the victim is forgotten as well as the horrifying nature of the crime. This is not the first time this has happened in West Bengal. When the Left Front government was in power, the roles were reversed in cases around rapes during the Singur and Nandigram agitations.<br /><br />Second, when a middle class urban woman is raped, the trajectory follows a predictable course. The victim is always asked to explain her behaviour. In this case, the woman was asked why she was at a nightclub when she is the mother of two children. The fact that she had separated from her husband was disclosed. That she is an Anglo-Indian was repeated as if that had a special significance. Why is any of this relevant, including what she wore that night or whether she drank alcohol or not? Yet, a minister in Mamata Banerjee&rsquo;s government felt no sense of embarrassment in asking such questions.<br /><br />Third, we need to examine the role of the police. When the rape survivor first went to the police, she was mocked and asked embarrassing and lurid details about the rape. The policemen at the station would not take her seriously. Nor did they follow the clearly laid down procedure when recording rape cases. It took her several days to get a first information report (FIR) registered. If this can happen in a police station located in the heart of the West Bengal capital, one can well imagine the situation elsewhere in this country. That the Kolkata police managed to crack the case and have arrested three of the five men allegedly involved speaks more to the commitment and efficiency of a few senior police officers, including a woman, than the beat cops at the police station where the crime was registered, or for that matter the police commissioner who first dismissed the case as fabricated.<br /><br />What confidence does such a reaction imbue in women living in Kolkata if both the chief minister and the police commissioner pass judgment on a case even before it has been investigated? If an articulate, educated middle class woman is not taken seriously when she reports rape, what hope is there for poor women who are subjected to sexual assault? Mamata Banerjee&rsquo;s insensitive response to the Kolkata rape survivor is completely unacceptable. If she has any interest in reassuring women in West Bengal that they should not fear for their safety, the least she can do is publicly apologise to the woman. As a further gesture, she needs to reprimand the member of her cabinet who questioned the woman&rsquo;s character as well as the police commissioner who was only too ready to dismiss the case.<br /><br />The Kolkata rape case might disappear from the news in a short while but the reality of the violence that women in India face every day of their lives will not. The latest data from the National Crimes Record Bureau for 2010 records 22,172 cases of rape; the corresponding conviction rate is only 26.6%. Amongst states, Madhya Pradesh has the highest incidence (3,136) followed by West Bengal (2,311). Amongst cities, Delhi has the highest rate (414) followed by Mumbai (201). These figures only represent the reported cases. For every woman who picks up the courage to go to the police to register a case, there are scores who do not dare to approach our law-enforcers. And when lawmakers turn around and cynically use the sexual assault on a woman to further a political agenda, the crime is compounded several times over.</div>',
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-Economic and Political Weekly
</p>
<p>
&nbsp;
</p>
<div align="justify">
<em>Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.<br />
</em><br />
When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that, for people in the political battlefield, the seriousness of this violent crime and the increasing incidence of rape in our towns and villages are of no concern. This has become evident in Kolkata following the gang rape at gunpoint of a 37-year-old woman after midnight on 6 February. The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee&rsquo;s response was unconscionable. Instead of sympathising with the woman and urging the police to move on the case, Banerjee turned around and accused the rape survivor of concocting the story and being part of a conspiracy to malign the state government. For the chief minister to have said this assumes significance not just because she is a woman, and hence expected to understand that few women will cry &ldquo;rape&rdquo; without reason, but because she herself has championed cases where women have been victims of violent assault. However, given her response in this case, it would appear that the West Bengal chief minister chooses the victims whose cases she champions according to political compulsions.<br />
<br />
This particular case is still being played out as the police in Kolkata investigates it. But it brings to attention several important facts in cases of sexual assaults against women. First, when the incident of an individual rape gets embroiled in politics, the victim is forgotten as well as the horrifying nature of the crime. This is not the first time this has happened in West Bengal. When the Left Front government was in power, the roles were reversed in cases around rapes during the Singur and Nandigram agitations.<br />
<br />
Second, when a middle class urban woman is raped, the trajectory follows a predictable course. The victim is always asked to explain her behaviour. In this case, the woman was asked why she was at a nightclub when she is the mother of two children. The fact that she had separated from her husband was disclosed. That she is an Anglo-Indian was repeated as if that had a special significance. Why is any of this relevant, including what she wore that night or whether she drank alcohol or not? Yet, a minister in Mamata Banerjee&rsquo;s government felt no sense of embarrassment in asking such questions.<br />
<br />
Third, we need to examine the role of the police. When the rape survivor first went to the police, she was mocked and asked embarrassing and lurid details about the rape. The policemen at the station would not take her seriously. Nor did they follow the clearly laid down procedure when recording rape cases. It took her several days to get a first information report (FIR) registered. If this can happen in a police station located in the heart of the West Bengal capital, one can well imagine the situation elsewhere in this country. That the Kolkata police managed to crack the case and have arrested three of the five men allegedly involved speaks more to the commitment and efficiency of a few senior police officers, including a woman, than the beat cops at the police station where the crime was registered, or for that matter the police commissioner who first dismissed the case as fabricated.<br />
<br />
What confidence does such a reaction imbue in women living in Kolkata if both the chief minister and the police commissioner pass judgment on a case even before it has been investigated? If an articulate, educated middle class woman is not taken seriously when she reports rape, what hope is there for poor women who are subjected to sexual assault? Mamata Banerjee&rsquo;s insensitive response to the Kolkata rape survivor is completely unacceptable. If she has any interest in reassuring women in West Bengal that they should not fear for their safety, the least she can do is publicly apologise to the woman. As a further gesture, she needs to reprimand the member of her cabinet who questioned the woman&rsquo;s character as well as the police commissioner who was only too ready to dismiss the case.<br />
<br />
The Kolkata rape case might disappear from the news in a short while but the reality of the violence that women in India face every day of their lives will not. The latest data from the National Crimes Record Bureau for 2010 records 22,172 cases of rape; the corresponding conviction rate is only 26.6%. Amongst states, Madhya Pradesh has the highest incidence (3,136) followed by West Bengal (2,311). Amongst cities, Delhi has the highest rate (414) followed by Mumbai (201). These figures only represent the reported cases. For every woman who picks up the courage to go to the police to register a case, there are scores who do not dare to approach our law-enforcers. And when lawmakers turn around and cynically use the sexual assault on a woman to further a political agenda, the crime is compounded several times over.
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-Economic and Political Weekly


&nbsp;


Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.

When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that,...'
$disp = '<p>-Economic and Political Weekly</p><p>&nbsp;</p><div align="justify"><em>Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda.<br /></em><br />When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that, for people in the political battlefield, the seriousness of this violent crime and the increasing incidence of rape in our towns and villages are of no concern. This has become evident in Kolkata following the gang rape at gunpoint of a 37-year-old woman after midnight on 6 February. The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee&rsquo;s response was unconscionable. Instead of sympathising with the woman and urging the police to move on the case, Banerjee turned around and accused the rape survivor of concocting the story and being part of a conspiracy to malign the state government. For the chief minister to have said this assumes significance not just because she is a woman, and hence expected to understand that few women will cry &ldquo;rape&rdquo; without reason, but because she herself has championed cases where women have been victims of violent assault. However, given her response in this case, it would appear that the West Bengal chief minister chooses the victims whose cases she champions according to political compulsions.<br /><br />This particular case is still being played out as the police in Kolkata investigates it. But it brings to attention several important facts in cases of sexual assaults against women. First, when the incident of an individual rape gets embroiled in politics, the victim is forgotten as well as the horrifying nature of the crime. This is not the first time this has happened in West Bengal. When the Left Front government was in power, the roles were reversed in cases around rapes during the Singur and Nandigram agitations.<br /><br />Second, when a middle class urban woman is raped, the trajectory follows a predictable course. The victim is always asked to explain her behaviour. In this case, the woman was asked why she was at a nightclub when she is the mother of two children. The fact that she had separated from her husband was disclosed. That she is an Anglo-Indian was repeated as if that had a special significance. Why is any of this relevant, including what she wore that night or whether she drank alcohol or not? Yet, a minister in Mamata Banerjee&rsquo;s government felt no sense of embarrassment in asking such questions.<br /><br />Third, we need to examine the role of the police. When the rape survivor first went to the police, she was mocked and asked embarrassing and lurid details about the rape. The policemen at the station would not take her seriously. Nor did they follow the clearly laid down procedure when recording rape cases. It took her several days to get a first information report (FIR) registered. If this can happen in a police station located in the heart of the West Bengal capital, one can well imagine the situation elsewhere in this country. That the Kolkata police managed to crack the case and have arrested three of the five men allegedly involved speaks more to the commitment and efficiency of a few senior police officers, including a woman, than the beat cops at the police station where the crime was registered, or for that matter the police commissioner who first dismissed the case as fabricated.<br /><br />What confidence does such a reaction imbue in women living in Kolkata if both the chief minister and the police commissioner pass judgment on a case even before it has been investigated? If an articulate, educated middle class woman is not taken seriously when she reports rape, what hope is there for poor women who are subjected to sexual assault? Mamata Banerjee&rsquo;s insensitive response to the Kolkata rape survivor is completely unacceptable. If she has any interest in reassuring women in West Bengal that they should not fear for their safety, the least she can do is publicly apologise to the woman. As a further gesture, she needs to reprimand the member of her cabinet who questioned the woman&rsquo;s character as well as the police commissioner who was only too ready to dismiss the case.<br /><br />The Kolkata rape case might disappear from the news in a short while but the reality of the violence that women in India face every day of their lives will not. The latest data from the National Crimes Record Bureau for 2010 records 22,172 cases of rape; the corresponding conviction rate is only 26.6%. Amongst states, Madhya Pradesh has the highest incidence (3,136) followed by West Bengal (2,311). Amongst cities, Delhi has the highest rate (414) followed by Mumbai (201). These figures only represent the reported cases. For every woman who picks up the courage to go to the police to register a case, there are scores who do not dare to approach our law-enforcers. And when lawmakers turn around and cynically use the sexual assault on a woman to further a political agenda, the crime is compounded several times over.</div>'
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The Politics of Rape

-Economic and Political Weekly   Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda. When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that, for people in the political battlefield, the seriousness of this violent crime and the increasing incidence of rape in our towns and villages are of no concern. This has become evident in Kolkata following the gang rape at gunpoint of a 37-year-old woman after midnight on 6 February. The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s response was unconscionable. Instead of sympathising with the woman and urging the police to move on the case, Banerjee turned around and accused the rape survivor of concocting the story and being part of a conspiracy to malign the state government. For the chief minister to have said this assumes significance not just because she is a woman, and hence expected to understand that few women will cry “rape” without reason, but because she herself has championed cases where women have been victims of violent assault. However, given her response in this case, it would appear that the West Bengal chief minister chooses the victims whose cases she champions according to political compulsions. This particular case is still being played out as the police in Kolkata investigates it. But it brings to attention several important facts in cases of sexual assaults against women. First, when the incident of an individual rape gets embroiled in politics, the victim is forgotten as well as the horrifying nature of the crime. This is not the first time this has happened in West Bengal. When the Left Front government was in power, the roles were reversed in cases around rapes during the Singur and Nandigram agitations. Second, when a middle class urban woman is raped, the trajectory follows a predictable course. The victim is always asked to explain her behaviour. In this case, the woman was asked why she was at a nightclub when she is the mother of two children. The fact that she had separated from her husband was disclosed. That she is an Anglo-Indian was repeated as if that had a special significance. Why is any of this relevant, including what she wore that night or whether she drank alcohol or not? Yet, a minister in Mamata Banerjee’s government felt no sense of embarrassment in asking such questions. Third, we need to examine the role of the police. When the rape survivor first went to the police, she was mocked and asked embarrassing and lurid details about the rape. The policemen at the station would not take her seriously. Nor did they follow the clearly laid down procedure when recording rape cases. It took her several days to get a first information report (FIR) registered. If this can happen in a police station located in the heart of the West Bengal capital, one can well imagine the situation elsewhere in this country. That the Kolkata police managed to crack the case and have arrested three of the five men allegedly involved speaks more to the commitment and efficiency of a few senior police officers, including a woman, than the beat cops at the police station where the crime was registered, or for that matter the police commissioner who first dismissed the case as fabricated. What confidence does such a reaction imbue in women living in Kolkata if both the chief minister and the police commissioner pass judgment on a case even before it has been investigated? If an articulate, educated middle class woman is not taken seriously when she reports rape, what hope is there for poor women who are subjected to sexual assault? Mamata Banerjee’s insensitive response to the Kolkata rape survivor is completely unacceptable. If she has any interest in reassuring women in West Bengal that they should not fear for their safety, the least she can do is publicly apologise to the woman. As a further gesture, she needs to reprimand the member of her cabinet who questioned the woman’s character as well as the police commissioner who was only too ready to dismiss the case. The Kolkata rape case might disappear from the news in a short while but the reality of the violence that women in India face every day of their lives will not. The latest data from the National Crimes Record Bureau for 2010 records 22,172 cases of rape; the corresponding conviction rate is only 26.6%. Amongst states, Madhya Pradesh has the highest incidence (3,136) followed by West Bengal (2,311). Amongst cities, Delhi has the highest rate (414) followed by Mumbai (201). These figures only represent the reported cases. For every woman who picks up the courage to go to the police to register a case, there are scores who do not dare to approach our law-enforcers. And when lawmakers turn around and cynically use the sexual assault on a woman to further a political agenda, the crime is compounded several times over.