"A Rapist Has No Right to Life": Abhishek Banerjee Bats for Capital Punishment, Criticizes BJP's Delay in Passing Anti-Rape Law

Trinamool Congress (TMC) National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday renewed his demand for stricter anti-rape laws, criticising the BJP led central government for failing to introduce or pass stronger legislation. Banerjee’s comments came amid ongoing protests in West Bengal following the brutal rape and murder of a 31-year-old PGT doctor at RG Kar Hospital in Kolkata on August 9. The incident had sparked widespread outrage across the state and the country with doctors taking to streets in demand for justice and a safer environment at work spaces.

Speaking at a doctors' convention in his Lok Sabha constituency of Diamond Harbour, Banerjee highlighted the ‘Aparajita Bill’, an anti-rape law passed by the West Bengal government that strengthens existing legal provisions under the newly inducted Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS). However, he pointed out that the bill has been pending assent from the President for nearly two months.

“The ‘Aparajita’ Bill has been lying with the President. Like vaccine was the antidote to Covid, similarly a stricter law can be an antidote to rape. Why has the President not given assent to this bill in over two months?" Banerjee asked. “I have condemned the RG Kar incident from day one. And from day one I have been saying that people who commit such heinous crimes have no right to stay alive. They don’t deserve to live,” he added while emphasising the rise in cases of sexual violence in the country and the urgent need for a law to act as a deterrent. "When the whole country had erupted in protest after the RG Kar incident, even at that time one person was being raped every 10 minutes in this country," he said. "The only cure to this malice is a stringent law."

He slammed the central government’s inaction and lack of alacrity to pass such a bill in the parliament. "The central government can bring and pass a bill in just one day. Why aren’t they passing an anti-rape bill in Parliament through the ordinance route, as they have done for other matters? In the garb of G20 summit they used the ordinance route to climb the powers of Delhi government. They used ordinance to give extension to ED director thrice, so why not now?” he asked while claiming that BJP leaders would be worst hit and first to get affected if the anti-rape law is passed and implemented.

Banerjee also reiterated his support for the death penalty for rapists, stating that capital punishment could serve as an effective deterrent. "When you have proof against a rapist, why should that man be kept alive in jail at the cost of taxpayers’ money?" he questioned, adding that the cost of keeping a rapist in jail for six years could amount to over ₹5 lakh, money that could be better spent on social welfare schemes for the poor.​