Are women any better?

On February 5 a 37 year old Anglo Indian woman left a Park Street nightclub in Kolkata and was offered a lift by some men. She accepted because it was late and was then raped by 4 men who held a gun against her head inside a vehicle. When she approached the police to register a First Incidence Report the police mocked her. Even the police chief, Pachnanda dismissed her story. This is a divorced woman whose business has failed and who left her 2 daughters and an ailing mother at home to go drinking alone in a nightclub till late hours, ergo she must be providing " escort service ". But even if she is a " whore " surely she has every right to be protected against being raped at gun point? Problem was that the men had given her false names which confused the police at first but later they have arrested 3 men and a fourth is absconding. Surely the Chief Minister of Bengal, who is a woman would be enraged at this brutal insensitivity of the police but Ms Mamata Banerjee was hostile. She saw it as a " conspiracy to malign her government ". This is the same Mamata Banerjee who first came to notice when she led an agitation in 1990 against the then Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu of the CPM who dismissed the brutal rape of 2 women officials, one of whom was murdered, in Bantala as a sort of incident " that happens ". She also mounted a campaign against the CPM for the rape and murder of a teenager, Tapasi Malik during the Singur land acquisition agitation. So rape and murder of women are just a political tools to be used against opponents when the situation demands but a " conspiracy " when it happens on your watch. If a woman is so cynically indifferent why blame men? Also in Bengal, former CPM legislator from Burdwan North, Pradip Ta and senior CPM district committee member, Kamal Gayen were hacked to death with axes and knives when they took out a procession against the government of Ms Bannerjee. No one has been arrested so far and the CPM are blaming members of Ms Bannerjee's party, Trinamul Congress for the murders. Ms Bannerjee seems to be convinced that everyone is conspiring against her. Her first reaction is to say " NO " to everything. Whether it is the Goods and Services Tax bill, the LokPal bill, the bill for a National Counter Terrorism Centre or the bill for 51% Foreign Direct Investment, she just says no. Rape of a woman, deaths of babies in government hospitals, killing of CPM members, nothing happened. They are all conspiracies. Wonder if she thinks that we are all little green men from Mars? But then, asking her would make it a " conspiracy ".