Round 2 Of Kapil Sibal vs Jagdeep Dhankhar Over "Symptomatic Malaise"

Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Monday hit back at House chair Jagdeep Dhankhar in their spat over the frequency of violent crimes, including rape and murder, against women in India.

Mr Sibal posted on X this morning citing a media report that said Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Maharashtra, and Karnataka had reported the most rapes and/or murders from 2017 to 2022. "Dhankharji... seen this? Why is Bengal missing? No malaise?" he asked.

The data indicated that of the 1,500+ rapes and murders reported in that six year-period, UP registered 280 cases, followed by Madhya Pradesh (207), Assam (205), and Maharashtra (155).

Mr Sibal's unspoken jab seemed to refer to the horrific rape and murder of a junior doctor at Kolkata's RG Kar Hospital last month, which has made headlines on a scale not, perhaps, seen since the Nirbhaya tragedy 12 years ago. It has also triggered a furious political row between Bengal's ruling Trinamool and the Bharatiya Janata Party that is in power at the centre.

The spat between Mr Dhankhar and Mr Sibal was triggered by the latter authoring a resolution in his capacity as President of the Supreme Court Bar Association.

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Issue of the resolution has been contested by Mr Sibal's predecessor, Adish Aggarwala, who has claimed it does not have the approval of the association's executive committee and is therefore invalid.

Mr Aggarwala has demanded Mr Sibal either retract the resolution or apologise.

Responding to that resolution Mr Dhankhar criticised Mr Sibal for "adding salt to our injured conscience" by flagging the doctor's rape and murder as part of a wider "malaise" affecting the nation, indicating brutality against women had become commonplace.

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Without naming Mr Sibal, Mr Dhankhar accused "some stray voices" of aggravating the pain caused by the barbaric killing of the doctor at the RG Kar Hospital,

"When humanity has been shamed, there are some stray voices, voices that cause concern. What do they say? 'It is a symptomatic malaise, a frequent incident'," Mr Dhankhar, also the Vice President, said at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Uttarakhand's Rishikesh.

The gruesome RG Kar Hospital killing, around which lurid claims and counterclaims, that include trafficking and prostitution, have been freely made, is being tracked by the Supreme Court and investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation, which has grilled the hospital's former chief, Dr Sudip Ghosh. Only one arrest - Sanjoy Roy, a civilian police volunteer - has been arrested so far.

With input from agencies

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