Countless rapes forgotten since Nirbhaya: President Murmu reacts to Kolkata doctor rape-murder; says ‘enough is enough’

President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday reacted to the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The President said countless rapes had been forgotten by society since the Nirbhaya incident, though a few drew nationwide attention and added that the 'collective amnesia' was obnoxious.

In her first comment on Kolkata doctor's rape-murder case amid ongoing protests and political slugfest, the President said that she is ‘dismayed and horrified’.

Murmu made the comments in an article written for PTI.

‘Enough is enough’, said Murmu, expressing anguish over the crimes against women.

"Even as students, doctors and citizens were protesting in Kolkata, criminals remained on prowl elsewhere. No civilised society can allow daughters and sisters to be subjected to such atrocities,” the President added.

President Murmu on crimes against women

— Society needs ‘honest, unbiased self-introspection’, and should ask itself some difficult questions.

— Very often a ‘deplorable mindset’ sees the female as a lesser human being, less powerful, less capable, less intelligent.

— Societies scared to face history resort to collective amnesia; time now for India to face history squarely.

— Let us deal with this perversion in a comprehensive manner to curb it right at the beginning. We can do this only if we honour the memory of the victims by cultivating a social culture of remembering them to remind us of our failures in the past and prepare us to be more vigilant in future.

Just a few days ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed crime against women as an unpardonable sin and said that whoever is guilty should not be spared.

Modi added that his government was strengthening laws to ensure stringent punishment for those perpetrating crimes against women.

“Be it a hospital, school, government or police system, at whatever level negligence occurs, everyone should be held accountable. The message should go very clearly from top to bottom. This sin is unpardonable," the Prime Minister said.

On August 9, the trainee doctor was allegedly raped and murdered in the seminar hall of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital when she had gone to rest during her graveyard shift. Her body was found inside with severe injury marks.