A Bengali-Mexican Parallel? – Gateway House

The enormous public anger over the recent alleged rape and murder of a young doctor in Kolkata reflects the helplessness and grief felt by the youth and women of the state – and the country. In these days of post-truth, misinformation, disinformation and fake news, it is difficult to find answers to the reality of an incident.

For clarity, it is necessary to look at all aspects of West Bengal as it is today. The stories – or information – that are circulating are quite extraordinary. It is alleged that dozens, possibly hundreds of Jamaat-e-Islami members from Bangladesh have been actively sheltered, protected and perhaps even subsidized in West Bengal for a number of years. The Jamaat is a fiercely anti-Indian organization and a clear and present danger to the country. What is the logic in protecting them from the Bangladeshi authorities who rightly want to arrest and try them?

There is a pattern of abuse of women in Bengal. By most accounts, a senior politician, his henchmen and accomplices were allegedly involved in terrorizing and sexually exploiting women in Sandeshkhali, a small island in North 24 Parganas district, for years. And yet the electorate seemed not to care. The voting patterns show a casual indifference and possibly even an acquiescence to intimidation.

The case of the alleged rape and murder of the young doctor in Kolkata reveals a larger story. That many government institutions in West Bengal including schools, colleges, hospitals and the police are allegedly controlled by criminals and criminal gangs looking for profit. Regardless of the veracity of this information, many believe these things to be true and in fact the situation is worse. This goes some way to explaining the public reaction.

Drugs from Myanmar – now the world’s largest producer of opium1 – use the state and the northeastern region as a transit and often distribution centre. This is worth noting and we will return to it later.

The status and role of the police is even more shocking, with thousands of off-book “volunteer” police officers deployed, with an undefined official status. The English reformer Robert Peel deliberately steered societies away from vigilantes to organized police personnel. But in today’s West Bengal, this kind of policing is officially back, as off-book, poorly paid, unverified background check “consultants” are deployed, sometimes to the detriment of society, as seen in the DG Kar Hospital case.

There is an analogous situation in the world today. People shrug their shoulders when told that in Mexico most institutions are compromised by or directly or indirectly involved in drug trafficking, narcoterrorism, human trafficking. Criminal syndicates control ports and global supply chains and, according to a report by the Council on Foreign Relations, use their “vast profits to bribe judges, officers and politicians.”3 This may be officially untrue. But enough people believe it and the belief sticks.

Mexico’s Federal Security Service has been credibly accused of providing “protection” to drug gangs. As government institutions, including schools, colleges, hospitals and the police in West Bengal, are infiltrated by criminal gangs, the state’s similarity to Mexico becomes more apparent.

The parallels are clear and disturbing. The last thing we need is a deadly criminal syndicate (with or without the narco label) state operating within India’s borders. We need action, and we need it urgently. And the action must be to restore public credibility so that the criminal-institution nexus, if it exists, is crushed solidly.

Jaithirth Rao is the author of The Indian Conservative and Economist Gandhi. He is the former founder and CEO of MphasiS and former head of Citibank’s Global Technology Division.

This blog is written exclusively for Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations. You can read more exclusive content here.

Support our work here.

For permission to republish, please contact [email protected].