RG Kar fallout: People's outpour of anger may turn a new leaf in Bengal's politics, say observers

Opinions on what it means ranged from the "beginning of the end of the Bengali middle class's bonhomie with the Trinamool Congress" to "the social resistance will ultimately take a political form". The "enough is enough" mindset, others suggest, is reflected in the 'bhadralok' community finally breaking the shackles of its "sense of helplessness", now that it finds its "back pinned to the wall."

Senior journalist Biswajit Bhattacharya remarked, "The Kar incident seems to have erased the limiting class consciousness of the educated civil society, which has now chosen to lead the protests instead of being led." He admitted that he had never witnessed such a scale and character of spontaneous mass mobilisation before.

Bhattacharya attributed the success of the planning and logistics behind these grand protests to the prevalence of social media. He noted that a sense of "deep-seated and compounded anger" among ordinary people has elevated their public retort beyond the 2013 Shahbag protests in Bangladesh, highlighting that there is "no communal angle involved here."

He continued, "The demand for justice for the victim and her kin has spilled over into demands for the security of women in all levels of public and private spaces. This entails challenging well-entrenched social norms, with which the middle class is quickly identifying. The shunning of political insignias across the spectrum reflects the disillusionment with the parties and the ideologies they represent."

Maidul Islam, a professor of Political Science at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, views the so-called apolitical protests as stemming from a "deeper crisis of representation" for the urban Bengali who has been excluded from political decision-making and left at the mercy of "lumpen" local satraps.

Islam explained, "The identification with the victim a representative of the formal sector and educated member of the middle class tortured and killed by a criminal subaltern was both instant and profound." He attributed the pent-up frustration to the sustained lack of employment opportunities in the state, which has forced a brain drain, compounded by pervasive corruption perpetuated by successive ruling establishments.

"The subdued resentment needed an outlet, and the Kar crime provided the perfect trigger," he said. Islam was cautious about making any sweeping conclusions about what this means for the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC).

"At best, I could call the phenomenon the beginning of the end of the middle class's bonhomie with the TMC. The rural sector is not yet completely aligned with this largely urban sentiment," he said. Writer and former civil servant Anita Agnihotri described the civil protests as a "unique phenomenon never experienced since Independence", noting the significant participation of women.

"It's not a response to a crime alone, nor is it organised solely around the issue of security for women in the workplace. What shocked and angered people is the gruesome crime's likely outcome of a network of crime, extortion, and organised rackets," she said.

Agnihotri continued, "And if that isn't enough, the consistent and blatant manipulation of the investigation, the crime scene, and the use of the ruling party's influence at the hospital, the victim's house, and the crematorium were appalling." She maintained that this realization made the response "so sharp and universal."

According to Agnihotri, a significant section of people has stayed away from political banners due to a lack of trust in both the ruling party and the opposition, who are seen as prioritizing narrow political gains over justice. "The common people have understood that even a government elected with huge support can blatantly display a lack of accountability and show alignment with criminals and conspirators with such nonchalance. It's a lesson for them and for the democratic process," she said.

Bhattacharya, though, believes that despite the resistance's "apolitical" claim, the agitation remains deeply political. "Look carefully, and you will see that Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is already chasing the narrative set by civil society instead of the other way around. Her actions, including hitting the roads for justice and passing stringent anti-rape laws in the state Assembly, are testimony to that fact," he said.

Islam, on the other hand, finds the "rise of social media activism by a new generation of feminists" accounting for these "leaderless" protests. "This is a post #MeToo development that's largely anchored in social media spaces. The nature of the movement is one of 'anarchy' in the positive sense of the term. Besides Shahbag, there are examples of the Arab Spring movement, Occupy Wall Street and even the India Against Corruption platform. While some fizzled out, others got co-opted within political parties. It's too early to predict what direction the current agitations would take," Islam maintained.