Fresh anger in Kolkata as law student gang-raped, just half-a-year after doctor's rapist get life sentence
NEW DELHI, June 28 — Indian police have arrested three men accused of gang raping a law student in Kolkata, officials said yesterday, a case that has reignited anger in a city still scarred by the rape and murder of a doctor last year.
The survivor said she was assaulted on Wednesday evening inside a room on the college premises, Indian media reported, with the three accused including two current and one former student.
The All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), the ruling party in West Bengal state, said the 'full weight of the law will be brought to bear'.
The case again highlights the chronic issue of sexual violence in the world's most populous country, where an average of nearly 90 rapes a day were reported in 2022.
It has also sparked fresh political clashes between the AITC and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The BJP accused the AITC-led state government of failing to protect women.
West Bengal had become a 'breeding ground for crimes against women', the BJP said in a statement. 'State machinery continues to fail its daughters'.
The AITC rejected the accusations.
The assault comes after a Kolkata court in January sentenced the rapist and murderer of a 31-year-old doctor to life in prison.
Her killing in August 2024 at a state-run hospital in Kolkata triggered protests, with candlelight marches and nationwide outrage over the continuing violence against women.
The brutality of that attack drew comparisons to the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in New Delhi, a crime that shocked the country and led to widespread demonstrations. — AFP
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Malay Mail
7 hours ago
- Malay Mail
Fresh anger in Kolkata as law student gang-raped, just half-a-year after doctor's rapist get life sentence
NEW DELHI, June 28 — Indian police have arrested three men accused of gang raping a law student in Kolkata, officials said yesterday, a case that has reignited anger in a city still scarred by the rape and murder of a doctor last year. The survivor said she was assaulted on Wednesday evening inside a room on the college premises, Indian media reported, with the three accused including two current and one former student. The All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), the ruling party in West Bengal state, said the 'full weight of the law will be brought to bear'. The case again highlights the chronic issue of sexual violence in the world's most populous country, where an average of nearly 90 rapes a day were reported in 2022. It has also sparked fresh political clashes between the AITC and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP accused the AITC-led state government of failing to protect women. West Bengal had become a 'breeding ground for crimes against women', the BJP said in a statement. 'State machinery continues to fail its daughters'. The AITC rejected the accusations. The assault comes after a Kolkata court in January sentenced the rapist and murderer of a 31-year-old doctor to life in prison. Her killing in August 2024 at a state-run hospital in Kolkata triggered protests, with candlelight marches and nationwide outrage over the continuing violence against women. The brutality of that attack drew comparisons to the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in New Delhi, a crime that shocked the country and led to widespread demonstrations. — AFP
Malay Mail
12 hours ago
- Malay Mail
As Dalai Lama turns 90, Tibetans fear Beijing's grip on what comes next
DEHRADUN (India), June 28 — Tibetans in exile celebrate the 90th birthday of spiritual leader the Dalai Lama next week, an occasion overshadowed by uncertainty about the future of the role and what it means for their movement. The charismatic Nobel Peace Prize-winning Buddhist — who Tibetans say is the 14th reincarnation of the 600-year-old post — will reveal if there will be another Dalai Lama after him. The inevitable change ahead brings wider concerns for Tibetans over the struggle to keep their identity alive after generations in exile, following a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. There is widespread support among Tibetans in exile for the Dalai Lama role to remain, said Dawa Tashi, once jailed in Tibet for his criticism of Beijing. The Dalai Lama has said the institution will continue only if there is popular demand. 'I strongly believe the reincarnation of the 14th Dalai Lama will continue,' said Tashi, of the India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy. 'This hope is not only shared by Tibetans inside and outside Tibet, but by thousands who are connected to the Dalai Lama across the world,' he told AFP. The leader, who turns 90 on July 6, and thousands of other Tibetans have lived in exile in India since Chinese troops crushed the uprising in the Tibetan capital Lhasa. The Dalai Lama has been lauded by his followers for his tireless campaign for greater autonomy for Tibet, a vast high-altitude plateau in China about the size of South Africa. 'Vested political interests' The Dalai Lama handed over political authority in 2011 to an exiled government chosen democratically by 130,000 Tibetans globally. At the same time, he warned that the future of his spiritual post faced an 'obvious risk of vested political interests misusing the reincarnation system'. Many Tibetans in exile fear China will name a successor to bolster its control over Tibet. The Dalai Lama has said that if there is a successor it will come from the 'free world' outside China's control. The Dalai Lama has long said he does not seek full independence for Tibet. Beijing says the territory is an integral part of China and that the Dalai Lama 'has no right to represent the Tibetan people'. Whatever the Dalai Lama decides about his role, 'the freedom movement must continue regardless', said Kunga Tashi, a 23-year-old Tibetan software engineer in India's tech hub Bengaluru. 'The Chinese government and even Tibetans still equate the Dalai Lama with the freedom struggle,' he said. 'And that is why his reincarnation feels like a turning point.' 'Continuity of the institution' The Dalai Lama, recognised worldwide in his red robes and wide smile, lives an austere monastic life in India's Himalayan hill town of McLeod Ganj. He has said he wants to live until 113. Penpa Tsering, the sikyong or head of the government which is also based in McLeod Ganj, said that senior Buddhist elders, or lamas, will meet the Dalai Lama on July 2. The same day they will open the grand meeting of religious leaders, during which a video message by the Dalai Lama will be broadcast. No details of its message have been released. The Dalai Lama's translator of nearly four decades, Thupten Jinpa, believes that 'the continuity of the institution will remain', meaning that, in time, there 'will be a new Dalai Lama'. 'Today, many young Tibetans prioritise personal success over collective struggle,' said Geshema Tenzin Kunsel, a nun in her 50s from Dolma Ling Nunnery, near McLeod Ganj. 'In his absence, I fear what our future might look like.' 'Shape our own destiny' Tibetans who spoke to AFP say they will keep up their campaign no matter what happens in the coming weeks. 'While we haven't yet achieved our goal of returning to a free Tibet, we've come further than anyone could have imagined — and that's because of His Holiness (the Dalai Lama),' said Sonam Topgyal, 26, a university student in New Delhi. Nepal-based Sakina Batt, 35, a former civil servant with the Tibetan administration, is part of Tibet's minority Muslim population. She too believes that the reincarnation process should 'continue as it has for generations, preserving its sacred tradition without interruption'. But she also said that it depended on the people, not just one leader. 'The future of Tibetans depends on unity and resilience,' she said. 'It's ultimately up to us to shape our own destiny.' — AFP
Malay Mail
12 hours ago
- Malay Mail
‘Just another human being': Dalai Lama's enduring grace, in his translator's words
NEW DELHI, June 28 — With his flowing red monk's robes, beaming smile and contagious laugh, the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, has been the charismatic global face of his people's cause for decades. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning monk, Tenzin Gyatso, is expected to celebrate his 90th birthday on July 6 with huge crowds in northern India, his base since leaving his homeland fleeing Chinese troops in 1959. While China condemns him as a rebel and separatist, the internationally recognised Dalai Lama describes himself as a 'simple Buddhist monk'. Thupten Jinpa, his translator of nearly four decades, described a man who uses humour to calm, fierce intellect to debate, and combines self-discipline with tolerance of others. 'He's never deluded by being extraordinary,' said Jinpa, an eminent Buddhist scholar born in Tibet. The Dalai Lama treats those he meets in the same manner whether they are a president or a peasant, world leader or Hollywood star. 'When he's getting ready to go and see a president or a prime minister, everybody around him is all getting nervous he's just completely relaxed,' said Jinpa, who is now a professor at Montreal's McGill University. 'Once I asked him how is it that he's not nervous, and he said, basically, 'the person I'm meeting is just another human being, just like me!'' 'Self-confidence and humility' Despite being revered as the 14th reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, a role stretching back more than 600 years, he does not act with a sense of superiority. 'He is one of the most self-confident people I've ever met in my life,' Jinpa said. 'Self-confidence and humility generally don't go together that well, but in him, they sit beautifully.' Jinpa highlighted the Dalai Lama's ability to bring people together through his 'contagious' sense of humour and famous giggling 'individual laugh'. 'He uses humour immediately, so he has this ability to make you feel at ease.' But the translator also described a man who applied the rigorous education and skills of philosophical debate learned as a monk to address the challenges of a complex world. 'He's gone through a formal academic training,' said Jinpa, who himself studied as a monk and holds a doctorate from the University of Cambridge. 'So when he's sitting down with scientists and philosophers and thinkers in deep conversation, his ability to get to the gist, and ask the question that points towards the next challenge, is an amazing display of his focus.' Jinpa described a man who pursues an austere monastic life with 'very high discipline'. 'He gets up at 3:30am and has meditation. He doesn't eat after lunch, which is one of the precepts of monastic ethics,' he said. 'He has always maintained this strictly.' While he was born to a farming family, the Dalai Lama grew up in Lhasa's Potala Palace, a vast building reputed to have 1,000 rooms. Since then he has spent much of his life in a hilltop monastic complex in India's town of McLeod Ganj. 'His bedroom is actually a small corridor between two large rooms, doors on the two sides, and a three-by-six single bed attached to the wall, and next to it is a shower cubicle — and that's it,' Jinpa said. 'He has got his photographs of his gurus, teachers, above his bed — very simple.' 'Non-judgement' But the Dalai Lama balances that toughness towards himself with softness for those he meets. 'Generally, when people are more pious, more disciplined, more pure, they also tend to be less tolerant,' Jinpa said. 'A lot of the intolerance really comes from puritanism in the world, whether it's religious or ideology,' he added. 'But again, in him, this understanding and non-judgement towards others — and expectation of a high standard for himself — it sits beautifully.' Jinpa added that as the holder of a centuries-old institution, the Dalai Lama places his people before himself. 'In all the negotiations that he has had with China, he has constantly made the point that the issue is not about his return, or his status,' he said. 'The issue is about the Tibetan people — there are over six million of us,' said Jinpa. 'Their ability to be self-governing on the Tibetan plateau, which is their historical home, and their ability to exist with dignity as a distinct people within the People's Republic of China.' — AFP
