{"id":46036,"date":"2026-05-25T11:50:48","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T07:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=46036"},"modified":"2026-05-25T11:50:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T07:50:48","slug":"womens-voices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/womens-voices\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Voices"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carnet Hebdo<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

By <\/strong>Nita Chicooree-Mercier<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Democratic constitutions often make it irrelevant to vote for additional laws establishing quotas for women in parliament. Provisions already exist that open the door to everyone, irrespective of gender, to step into the realm of politics. This was recently demonstrated by three female candidates who drew significant media attention for their resounding success, making their way into the State Parliament by sheer force of will in the recent West Bengal regional elections in India.\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

They did not elbow their way into a crowd of zealots from main rival parties due to their patronyms, nor did they rely on special favors for cosmetic ethnic politics handed down to them on a platter by party leadership. Instead, their rise occurred against the backdrop of brewing anger against the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), commonly known as the TMC, led by outgoing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The TMC’s rule was widely criticized as tyrannical, propped up by thugs, and marred by rampant discrimination against Bengalis, alongside allegations of appeasement and expanding vote banks through illegal immigrants from neighbouring regions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The three women ran for the State Assembly under the banner of the BJP, the ruling party in Delhi. Kalita Maji, who worked as a maid in four different houses to earn a living, faced continuous harassment from TMC goons for supporting the BJP, yet she ultimately defeated the TMC candidate by 12,000 votes. Rekha Patra was a victim of the Sandeshkhali gang rape by TMC men, a crime for which she had previously obtained no justice. Ratna Debnath is the mother of the young doctor who was brutally raped and murdered at RG Kar Hospital two years ago — a horrendous case that shocked the nation, where the criminal initially evaded justice thanks to close links with the ruling TMC party and subsequent cover-ups by the judiciary and police.<\/span><\/p>\n

These three women did not use social networks to reach out to the people in their constituencies; they conducted door-to-door canvassing, and their fight resonated deeply with the public. When Ratna Debnath knocked on doors and appeared in front of shops, folks hugged her and wept, while others fell at her feet, moved by the deep pain of a broken-hearted mother visibly etched on her face. She defeated the TMC candidate by 28,000 votes.<\/span><\/p>\n

These three women are determined to engage with politics from the inside — from a parliament where issues impacting the lives of the state are debated, policy-making takes place, and laws are enacted. It is most remarkable that the cause they stand for outweighs the trappings of social class, family names, caste, and money. Reportedly, West Bengal had become rife with violence, institutional corruption, censorship, discrimination, and favouritism toward specific groups.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once elected, the new BJP Chief Minister, Suvendu Adhikari, immediately set himself to the task of a complete clean-up: suspending three police officers in the RG Kar Hospital murder case, initiating a series of arrests and investigations, scrapping discriminatory policies, deporting illegal migrants, fencing porous borders, demolishing illegal constructions, and reopening the files of more than 300 BJP workers killed over the 15 years of TMC rule.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bengal was historically known as the centre of the Indian Renaissance. Even after its eastern half was separated to create Bangladesh, West Bengal continued to shine as the intellectual capital of India, leading in arts, literature, poetry, and philosophy. It is the land of great public figures, including social reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Swami Vivekananda, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the mystic, poet, and guru Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, and contemporary writers like Amitav Ghosh and so many others.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reportedly, outgoing CM Mamata Banerjee was being pressured by her advisor, based in Bangladesh, to separate West Bengal from India and merge it with Bangladesh to create a “Greater Bangladesh” in 2026, of which Banerjee would later become the Prime Minister. Allegedly, hotel rooms had even been booked to celebrate a victory marked by the targeted abuse of kidnapped Bengali girls, but the entire plan fizzled out. In recent years, Bengalis were forbidden from chanting Vande Mataram<\/em>, Jai Hind<\/em>, or anything related to their traditional civilisation and culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

This anti-national posturing instilled fear and censorship, causing widespread, escalating anger. Bengal seemed set on a path of civilisational decline. The BJP worked relentlessly for the past three years to prevent these anti-national forces from staying in power. Bengalis flew back to Bengal in large numbers from Australia, Canada, and the US just to cast their votes and avert a civilisational disaster.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bearing the deep scars of the 1947 Partition, and long marked by the leftist politics of Communism led by Jyoti Basu, followed by TMC\u2019s liberals and pseudo-secular politics, 2026 emerges as a real Liberation Day for Bengalis. This explains the vibrant celebrations of colour, music, and dance in the streets — an outbreak of pure joy after long years of suppression.<\/span><\/p>\n

West Bengal stands as an outstanding example of how unity can save a country from hostile forces, restoring stability and civilisational continuity. It also sends another potent message: women as heads of state are not inherently virtuous; they, too, can team up with thugs, wreak havoc, damage the social fabric, and connive with external hostile forces against national unity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 22 May 2026<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carnet Hebdo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":46037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19379],"tags":[29715,61410,701,8848,61407,165,61411,61409,36,170,4238,48546,61413,61412,61415,4384,61414,61408,31923,61406],"class_list":["post-46036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-bangladeshis","tag-bengalis","tag-bjp","tag-carnet-hebdo","tag-democratic-constitutions","tag-india","tag-kalita-maji","tag-mamta-bannerjee","tag-mauritius-times","tag-nita-chicooree-mercier","tag-parliament","tag-quotas","tag-ratna-debnath","tag-rekha-patra","tag-rg-kar-hospital","tag-rohingyas","tag-sandeshkali","tag-trinamool-congress-party","tag-west-bengal","tag-womens-voices"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Liberation-Day-for-West-Bengal.-Pic-TOI.jpg?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-bYw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46038,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46036\/revisions\/46038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}