West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee finds herself at the center of a fresh political firestorm for her remarks on the Durgapur medical student rape case, continuing a long-standing pattern of comments that critics argue consistently blame victims and question their conduct rather than addressing the crimes perpetrated against them.
The latest controversy erupted on Sunday when the Chief Minister, addressing the gang rape of a 23-year-old medical student, focused her inquiry on the victim’s whereabouts.
“She was studying in a private medical college… all the private medical are whose responsibility? how they came out in the night at 12:30?… it happened, so far I know, in the forest area… investigation is on,” Banerjee said. She added, “Especially the girl child at night time they should not be allowed to come out in the outside… They have to protect themselves also.”
In yet another disgraceful remark, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has blamed the second-year MBBS student from Odisha, studying at IQ City Medical College & Hospital, Durgapur (West Bengal), who was brutally gang raped by Wasif Ali and his accomplices, for her own… pic.twitter.com/71xcY9te3f
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) October 12, 2025
The 2012 ‘Open Market’ Comment
Following the horrific Park Street gang rape in 2012, Banerjee made a statement that shocked the nation. She linked rising rape cases to modern social interactions between men and women.
“Rape cases are on the rise because boys and girls interact more freely now. Earlier, if men and women would hold hands, they would get caught by parents and reprimanded, but now everything is so open. It’s like an open market with open options,” she had stated. She had also notoriously dismissed the Park Street rape as a “fabricated incident” or “shajano ghatana” meant to embarrass her government.
The 2013 Kamduni Outburst
In June 2013, a 20-year-old college student, Shipra Ghosh, was abducted, gang-raped, and murdered in Kamduni. When Banerjee visited the village days later, she was met by angry women protesters demanding justice and safety.
Her response was to angrily dismiss them. “People here are CPM supporters. I am sorry to say CPM is doing politics. All the goons arrested (for the rape-murder) were CPM supporters. Chorer mayer boro gala (the thief’s mother shouts the loudest),” Mamata said as she got into her car, refusing to listen to their pleas.
The 2022 Hanskhali ‘Affair’ Insinuation
In a particularly egregious case from April 2022, a 14-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped at a birthday party by the son of a TMC leader. The girl bled to death, after which the accused and his associates allegedly snatched her body and set it on fire to destroy evidence.
Instead of condemning the atrocity, Chief Minister Banerjee publicly cast doubt on the family’s account, suggesting a consensual relationship.
“The police are yet to understand the cause of the death. I had asked them. Will you call it rape or was she pregnant? Was it (the fallout of) a love affair? Have you enquired about these?… I am talking as a layman. From where will they (police) get the evidence whether she was raped or she was pregnant or there was any other reason such as she was slapped by someone after which she fell ill,” Banerjee said at a public event.
A Consistent Pattern Over the Years
Sandwiched between these major incidents are numerous other cases – Kakdwip, Ranaghat, Siuri, and the systemic horrors of Sandeshkhali – where the Chief Minister’s response has been marked by either a stunning silence, a reluctance to acknowledge the crimes, or a swift attribution of political motives to protesters.
From questioning a victim’s presence outside at night, to insinuating consensual affairs, to blaming “open” interactions between genders, and dismissing protesters as political operatives, Mamata Banerjee’s tenure is marked by a consistent thread: a refusal to place the blame for sexual violence squarely on the perpetrators and the systems that fail to stop them, instead focusing scrutiny on the actions, character, and circumstances of the victims.
This is not an isolated incident but part of a recurring behaviour of the West Bengal Chief Minister spanning over a decade.
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