KOLKATA: On Tuesday, an Indian state that had been rocked by weeks of demonstrations calling for justice in the wake of a doctor’s rape and murder enacted a law that may result in the death of rapists.
When a 31-year-old doctor’s bloodied body was found on August 9 at a state-run hospital in the regional capital of Kolkata, West Bengal went into protest.
The state legislature passed the measure, which expresses outrage at the persistent problem of violence against women, but the president has not yet authorized it.
Given the national application of India’s penal code, the new West Bengal statute is essentially symbolic. Presidential approval, however, can create an exception and make it state law.
The law increases the penalty for rape from the current minimum 10-year term to life in prison or death.
Although many doctors have now returned to work, the doctor’s murder provoked rallies and strikes by medical professionals across India, supported by lakhs of common residents.
Since then, protests in West Bengal have descended into altercations between supporters of opposing political parties, namely the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling All India Trinamool Congress (AITC).
Although it is in opposition in West Bengal, the Hindu-nationalist BJP is in charge nationwide. It supported the new state statute, as did the AITC.
The attack’s graphic nature has led to similarities with the horrifying 2012 gang rape and killing of a young woman on Delhi’s capital bus.
