DC Edit | Rape in WB: Stop Victim-blaming

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s response to the midnight rape of a medico on a campus in Durgapur in the state can easily be termed one of the worst examples of victim-blaming and abdication of responsibility by a person at the wheel.

The chief minister was wondering aloud how the victim girl came out at 12.30 in the night. And worse, blaming the medical college and the girl, she suggested that girls should not be allowed to go outside in the night and that they have to protect themselves.

Protection of life and properties of the citizens is the prime responsibility of a government in a democracy and there are state instruments to ensure that. The state’s job is not to protect those who limit their activities to their homes alone but also to protect others who go out and engage in activities that do not violate the law.

Ms Banerjee was making an open admission that the administration she heads is not in a position to ensure protection to all people at all times when she questioned a rape-survivor’s right to go out at a time and to a place of her choosing. It also implies that criminals are free to act at a time and place of their choosing and it is for the law-abiding citizens to avoid them. It also conveys a message that those who choose to exercise their freedoms are doing so at their own risk and that the violators of the law have an excuse for their doing, however criminal it is.

People resort to victim blaming when they are not in a position to stop an unwanted event from happening. Principles of democratic governance in this age cannot condone a chief minister who is unequal to the task of implementation of the law and order. Ms Banerjee must withdraw her statement and publicly apologise to the victim and the people of this country for her irresponsible statement.