It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that the unprecedented outpouring of public anger at and the protests against the rape and murder of a woman doctor at a city hospital constitute the sternest test that the Mamata Banerjee government has faced in recent times. Ms Banerjee’s administration has been derelict in its responsibilities. There have been several administrative bunglings. For instance, the decision to give another posting to the former principal of the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital soon after the discovery of the grisly crime at an institution under his watch — the Calcutta High Court did not ignore this aspect — added to the public ire. The conduct of the police — Ms Banerjee is in charge of the state home department — has left a lot to be desired on a number of counts, with its failure to prevent the hooliganism at the hospital premises deepening the blot. These administrative lapses have, in turn, accentuated both the bona fide criticism and the conspiracy theories that have, unfortunately, become a dime a dozen. That the Trinamool Congress remains confused — clueless? — about how to ride out the storm is also evident from the fact that the party is speaking in conflicting voices. While the chief minister has blamed the Opposition for fanning mischievous flames, a senior party leader, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, has rubbed salts into the TMC’s wounds with his acerbic comments: he has been rewarded with a summons from the police. There are whispers within the TMC about it ceding crucial space, especially on social media, in the battle of perception. The party’s failure to come up with a counter-narrative has also
been discernible.

Some inferences can be drawn by way of explanation for the TMC finding itself on the defensive. The party’s seeming reliance on the administrative machinery, as opposed to local, grassroots leadership, to make sense of the mood on the ground has boomeranged. The conflation of the party with an inept administrative machinery in the public eye has rendered the former vulnerable to anger and mistrust. The intensity of the collective outburst must also be examined deeply. It ought to be remembered that the TMC had trailed the Opposition in several urban wards and local bodies in the recent Lok Sabha polls. Is it not possible that several strands of collective disenchantment have now coalesced to give the current protest its scale and depth? The TMC’s inertia has dented its image; is an electoral backlash inconceivable?