Kolkata: Huge Crowds Throng ‘Droho Carnival’ Dedicated to RG Kar Victim in Heart of the City

Kolkata: “I think

Because I’m alive and breathing

Not yet mummified and rotting.

I think

Because I have a brain

That controls not just my body

But, also, the thoughts that make me somebody.

I think and get angry

About Abhaya’s cremation done in a hurry.

I wonder how one man could batter her body,

My mind tells me the investigation was shoddy.

I wonder about the crowd around the dead girl,

The statement by the police made my head swirl.

We were told about the roles of each in the quorum

Not by laymen, but important officials, in public forum!!

I wondered why I couldn’t see any white cordon,

Neither Abhaya’s parents, as she lay in abandon.

Explanations by the officials seemed absolutely abysmal

Whoever could think of such a story of parade rehearsal!

I think, how logical queries are not just getting rubbished,

But, fearlessly and brazenly, open threats are being hissed.

I wonder what happened to the vandalism report

Wasn’t it supposed to be presented to the court?

I allow all these questions to haunt my mind

For I don’t want to live, just going about the grind,

Dogs do that, cats do that, even hyenas do that,

But I’m a human – whom creation has set apart!

I think, yes, I think,

I indulge in thoughts – deep or shallow,

For I know, that my actions will follow.”

Poems, songs, plays, stories abound each time Kolkata faces tough times. This time, the ‘Justice for RG Kar’ movement has given birth to several such poems, like the evocative one quoted above, written by Mitali Chakraborty, a techie who works with TCS. As part of the ‘Droho Carnival’ (Carnival of Rebellion), Chakraborty, a mother of two, was at the venue of the fast unto death by junior doctors on Sunday.

The ‘Droho Carnival’ called by the Joint Platform of Doctors in the city, was held at a venue 500 meters away from where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had called a Durga Puja Carnival.

While Banerjee’s carnival was more a show of administrative strength, the Droho Carnival was a picture of “peoples strength”.

Thousands of people gathered at the venue within hours of the Calcutta High Court judgement ordering the Government to open up the Rani Rashmoni Avenue for the Droho Carnival.

The crowds consisted of teachers, students, professors, doctors, working class people, who came with drums, musical instruments, trumpets and placards with the slogan of “We Demand Justice For Tilottama.”

Earlier, all four channels of the wide Rani Rashmoni Avenue at Esplanade were cordoned off by the police and Section 163 was imposed to thwart the carnival. However, within two hours of this announcement, noted advocate Bikashranjan Bhattacharya and his junior, Shamim Ahmad, approached the Calcutta HC, which quashed Section 163 and paved the way for Droho Carnival to take place.

Anjan Bera, former state Information and Cultural Affairs minister in the Left Front government, condemned the state government, as also the way young protesters were rounded up by the police for shouting slogans, wearing T-shirts demanding ‘Justice for Abhaya’ (another name given by the protesters to the RG Kar victim).

“This government is fearful of the protest. The ‘Reclaim the Night’ movement by women, which was held on August 14, saw the ruling party men breaking into RG Kar Hospital, which is unthinkable. Conspiracy after conspiracy is being hatched to deny Abhaya justice,” he told NewsClick.

LF Chairman Writes to CM on Docs’ Fast

Meanwhile, Left Front (LF) chairman Biman Basu has written an open letter to the Chief Minister, seeking her immediate intervention to end the ‘fast unto death’ by junior doctors. The fast has been going on for nearly 200 hours.

As per reports, the health of some fasting doctors is deteriorating and two of had to be hospitalised. The doctors have demands like safety in the workplace, justice for Abhaya/Tilottama among others.  So far, the Chief Minister has not made any effort to sit down with the fasting doctors to find a way out of the impasse.