The BJP supported the Aparajita Women and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2024, tabled by the Mamata Banerjee government in the Assembly on Tuesday.

This is the second instance of the state’s main Opposition party backing the Mamata Banerjee government in the House. On August 5, the Assembly unanimously passed a resolution that vowed against the “partition of West Bengal” after the Trinamul Congress accepted a key amendment proposed by the BJP.

The leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, on Tuesday delivered a 25-minute speech at the Assembly and announced the BJP’s support for the legislation.

“On behalf of the BJP legislative party, I fully support the bill. This is an important and sensitive bill and I believe the state government has followed the constitutional process, before bringing the bill,” said Adhikari.

The bill — moved by state law minister Moloy Ghatak — aims to ensure swift justice by introducing stringent and time-bound measures to tackle sexual crimes against women.

Given the BJP’s track record of opposing bills brought by the state government and the attack it mounted on the ruling establishment, especially Mamata Banerjee, after the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, the support for the legislation came as a surprise for some political observers.

The BJP had no choice but to support the bill, as opposing it would have allowed Trinamool to accuse the saffron camp of coming in the way of measures taken by the government against heinous crimes like rape, said an observer.

“After the RG Kar rape and murder case, the people of the state have hit the streets demanding justice. We cannot ignore this public sentiment and being a responsible Opposition party, it is our moral responsibility to support a bill that seeks to address crimes like rape,” a senior BJP leader said.

The BJP leader also highlighted that when rape cases in some of the BJP-ruled states were high, it would have been politically incorrect not to support the bill. “This would have given the TMC a chance to accuse us,” the leader added.

If the BJP was trying to align with public sentiment following the protests over the RG Kar issue, then the Aparajita Women and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2024, was an effort by the ruling party to demonstrate the government’s commitment to tackling rape and sexual offences against women.

“The bill aims to give speedy justice. In the bill, it has been proposed that the investigations must be completed within 21 days from the date of recording the information by the police officer. If incomplete, the investigation period can be extended by up to 15 days, supervised by an officer in the rank of SP,” state parliamentary affairs minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay said.

Although the Trinamul Congress legislators were upbeat about the bill, the BJP MLAs were apprehensive about its enactment. “The state government has introduced the bill and so it is the responsibility of the government to make this an act and implement it. We will wait for it,” Adhikari said.

Though the BJP came forward in its support of the bill for political reasons, the three BJP MLAs, who took part in the discussion, did not miss out on the opportunity to attack the TMC government in the state on the issue of women’s safety in Bengal.

“The state government is now introducing a stringent law but what the government has been doing so far? Why is there no safety in the government hospitals of the state? The state government couldn’t even spend the money sent by the Centre,” BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul said.