Some excesses are more excessive than others; it is fair to count rape among the most egregious violations of human rights. The recent horrific rape and murder of the Kolkata postgraduate medical student in what should have been a haven for her — a State-run hospital she was working in — must give the nation pause. The state and circumstances in which the body was found leave no room for any doubt that it was a most dastardly violent act, and brazen in that it occurred within a hall in the supposedly safe confines of the government medical college hospital. Every rape, unfortunately, is measured in severity by the amount of attention it garners from the public, and the outrage beast is selective. That is where the problem lies: even enforcement authorities seem to gauge public outrage before acting upon crimes against women. The Kolkata case was a classic example: the parents of the slain doctor were reportedly told that she had committed suicide initially, a blatant lie. Whereas, it could not have escaped the attention of anyone at the scene of crime, but particularly so medical professionals, that here indeed was dreadful assault and murder. Was the wilful cover-up necessitated by the fact that both the home and health portfolios are being held by none other than the Chief Minister of the State? Or to avoid responsibility for the administrative lapses that allowed such a crime to take place? The government, sadly, preferred to wait until the public outrage over the grisly crime became impossible to contain politically.