'Demonic act': PM Modi calls out crime against women in I-Day speech as Kolkata doctor’s rape-murder ignites mass protests

New Delhi: A day after lakhs of ordinary citizens hit the streets in West Bengal demanding justice for a brutally raped and murdered woman doctor in Kolkata, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he could feel the “anger among people” and “those who commit demonic acts should be given severe punishment to build trust in the society.”

“As a society, we will have to seriously think about the atrocities being committed against our mothers, sisters and daughters. There is anger among the common people. I can feel this anger. The country, society and our state governments will have to take this seriously,” Modi said in his independence day address from the ramparts of the Red Fort.

“Crimes against women should be investigated as soon as possible. It is important that those who commit demonic acts should be given severe punishment as soon as possible to build trust in the society,” he added.

The Prime Minister, however, avoided any direct reference to West Bengal, the state administration led by Trinamool Congress supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and RG Kar Medical College where the heinous crime was committed.

Modi also sought widespread publicity of the punishment meted out to the perpetrators of such crimes, arguing that widespread discussions about the punishment can instil a sense of fear among the criminals.

“I would like to say that when rapes and atrocities on women happen, it is widely discussed, there is a lot of publicity and it is covered in the media. But when such a person with a demonic mindset is punished, it is not seen anywhere in the news, it is kept somewhere in a corner,” the Prime Minister said.

“Now the need of the hour is that there should be a wide discussion about those who are punished so that those who commit such sins also fear that the consequences of committing such sins are that one has to be hanged to death and I think it is very important to create this fear.”

The Prime Minister’s comments come in the wake of raging protests among doctors as well as common men and women.

Hundreds of thousands of individuals in most of the cities and towns of the eastern state as well as in cities outside West Bengal spontaneously gathered and marched last night seeking justice for the doctor who was killed inside the government hospital in Kolkata.

Medical seats: The Prime Minister also announced establishing 75,000 new medical seats will be created in the next five years, hoping that such a move would help reduce students’ tendency to go abroad for medical education.

“Every year, almost 25,000 youth go abroad for medical education. We have decided that in the next five years, 75,000 new seats will be created in the medical line,” he said. There is no immediate clarity from the government on the undergraduate and postgraduate break up among these seats.

As of December 2023, there are 108,940 MBBS and 70,674 postgraduate (MD/MS) seats in 706 medical colleges in India.