Kolkata, Sep 8 (IANS): A night before the crucial hearing on Monday at the Supreme Court, thousands of protesters gathered West Bengal to protest against the rape and murder of the junior doctor at R.G Kar Medical College & Hospital.
The call was for another “Reclaim the Night” where especially the people from the cultural world were invited to hit the streets under the theme of 'Shashoker Ghum Bhangate Notun Ganer Bhor' (New song of dawn to wake the rulers out of slumber), quite similar to the call of 'Meyera Raat Dakhol Koro' (women reclaim the night) on the midnight of Independence Day this year.
Fiving a spontaneous reply to that call, thousands of apolitical protesters had started hitting the streets since late Sunday.
On one hand, there is a 14-kilometre- long human chain stretching from Sodepur in North 24 Parganas district to Shyambazar five-point crossing in north Kolkata, which is pretty close to RG Kar.
On the other hand, protest rallies from different corners of the state have started, mainly led by women and accompanied by men and even people from third-gender and LGBTQ communities demanding justice for victims.
The medium of protest are various forms of performing arts including painting and street plays.
The only difference is the earlier slogan of “We want Justice” has now changed to “We demand Justice”. On Sunday, the aunt of the victim junior doctor, while participating in a protest rally of junior doctors, claimed that it is high time that the slogan “We want Justice” should be changed to “We demand Justice”.
Her call seemed to have an immedicable effect on the mood of the protesters again reclaiming the night on Sunday, the second edition of the “Reclaim the Night” call on the midnight of August 14.
At midnight on Independence Day eve, when thousands of people hit the streets across the state to protest the rape-murder incident, the focus turned towards R.G. Kar where a large mob vandalised the Emergency Department of the hospital.
The state government and the Kolkata Police came under massive criticism following the incident.
While some claimed that the attack was orchestrated to divert attention from the 'Reclaim the Night' campaign, some claimed it was an attempt to destroy evidence at the scene of the crime within the hospital premises.