Interview: RG Kar protester is ‘shocked, shattered’ to see victim’s mother contest on BJP ticket

Rimjhim Sinha has been an activist since 2016, first as a student at Kolkata’s Presidency University and then as part of the vibrant women’s movement in the city. But, by her own estimate, her activism never reached more than “100 or 150 people”.

So when lakhs of ordinary women across West Bengal and in other parts of the country responded to her call for raat dakhal, or reclaim the night, on August 14, 2024, Sinha was taken aback. To this day, the left-wing activist struggles to explain why her appeal resonated with so many people on that day.

For nearly a week before that, Kolkata had been rocked by the news of a brutal rape-and-murder case at the city’s famous RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The victim, a trainee doctor, was working a night shift when the crime took place.

Sinha had asked women to reclaim the night in response to Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of RG Kar College, blaming the victim for being in the hospital’s seminar room late in the night. The public response to her call, the 30-year-old recalled, had filled the victim’s mother, Ratna Debnath, with “hope”.

“Later, she asked me to organise another raat dakhal and said she would join us,” Sinha...

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