Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday took it upon herself to clarify her stand on the junior doctor’s rape and murder at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and crimes against women, defending her dispensation against countless allegations emerging in the wake of the grisly crime.

Hours before the “Reclaim the Night” events take centre stage, the Bengal chief minister tried to ensure that her version was heard loud and clear. Mamata brought forward her usual late-night appearance at a Freedom at Midnight event she attends at Behala and went there several hours early.

Starting with the key question “What more could we have done?”, Mamata kept tearing into the BJP and the CPM for their role in keeping the protests alive despite the action initiated by her government and the intervention she ensured personally.

“When have we not taken action? I got to know about the incident when I was coming back from Jhargram. From the vehicle itself, I immediately contacted commissioner Vineet Goyal and was told that they were there in the hospital with the parents. I spoke to both the parents then and assured them that the police would probe and we would ensure capital punishment for the rapists. I had been saying this from Day One,” she added.

“I told them I would visit, and did so after the (funerary) rituals were done, as it would have been improper otherwise. The ritual was on Sunday and I visited them on Monday.”

The chief minister’s comments, multiple sources admitted, dragged the Trinamool Congress from the mire of confusion — on how to handle the crisis — with a roadmap of political programmes.

From its deer-caught-in-the-headlights moments over the past couple of days, Trinamool has been given plans by the chief minister to conduct rallies in every block, every ward of the state on Saturday to demand capital punishment for the guilty and expose the “Ram-Bam (BJP-Left) conspiracy”.

Sunday, there will be sit-in demonstrations in every block. On Monday, on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan, there will be programmes with the same demands.

“On Friday, I request everyone to assemble at the Moulali crossing at 3pm. I invite all mothers, sisters, brothers and all others who are protesting (to join that programme), without getting ensnared by political traps,” she said later at a similar event in Hazra.

“Within Sunday, the CBI has to facilitate the hanging of the guilty and complete the entire probe. Our Kolkata Police had completed 90 per cent of the investigation. I will start this meeting at 4pm from Moulali, and march to the Dorina crossing (on Friday),”
she added.

Several sources in Trinamool said Mamata’s announcement was “most necessary” because of the confusion among leaders on the party’s stand, which had caused a divergence of opinions and approaches toward the midnight protest events.

While some leaders, like Rajya Sabha member Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, had announced their intention to participate in the events on Wednesday night, others, such as Kunal Ghosh, had sternly advised against participating in them.

“Now, everyone knows that we will attend nothing other than the programmes she has planned for us,” said a senior in the leadership.

Several ruling party leaders in various districts stated that they had decided to join the midnight protests because several common people, including their party supporters, particularly women, were expected to participate in them.

Mamata underscored her role as an administrator since the tragedy struck and stressed the need for due diligence.

“People have to understand that I cannot act without evidence,” she said, going on to list many steps taken by the police in their investigation and the progress they had made till the high court transferred the probe to the CBI.

“All said and done, we have no issue that the high court handed over the case to the CBI. I would have had to hand over the case to the CBI only if the police couldn’t crack it,” she added. “The Kolkata Police team that was investigating the case was one of the best teams in the world.”

While pledging her support for the movement and the students’ demands, the chief minister said the CPM and the BJP were fomenting trouble, trying to defame Bengal by exploiting the situation. Bringing up a number of instances of crimes, many of them against women, under governments of the Left (in Bengal), the BJP and even the Congress over the past decades, Mamata demanded answers on what tangible action had been initiated by those regimes.

“They think because something has happened in Bangladesh, they could stretch it (replicate it), and misuse it to come to power here,” said the Trinamool chief.

“I don’t work for power…. I could just take my bag and walk away, I have already done that twice with the Union railway ministry. I have always stood for what is right and will ensure justice for people for as long as I am alive,” she added. “The BJP and CPM cannot stand what I have done to empower women. That is why they want to instigate people. Slowly, the people will recognise their true faces. Some of them are not even students, but politically motivated groups who want to remove me.”

Mamata expressed concern about the stalemate at different hospitals and urged the protesting doctors to resume their duties to provide healthcare services to the public.

“Three people have already died without treatment, including a child and a pregnant woman. Doctors are duty-bound to serve the people. I urge them, I appeal to them, I fall at your feet,” she said.

“You have protested for four to five days and nobody opposed it. Now, let us start work. This is my appeal,” added the health minister.