Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 12: The deadlock between Mamata Banerjee and junior doctors continued on Thursday evening after a delegation of 32 junior doctors camped outside the state secretariat but refused to enter meeting venue and hold talks with her after the government authorities did not allow the live streaming of the discussion.
A frustrated Ms Banerjee who waited for more than two hours for the delegation of the junior doctors for the meeting at “Nabanna,” the state secretariat building, commented that she was ready to resign in the interest of the people and that she was not enamoured of the top post in the state. Assuring the doctors that no action would be taken against them, she said the government was always ready for a dialogue. Her anger fell on people, who, she hinted, were masterminding the protest with vested interests.
Pointing to the proliferation of anti-government messages on social media, she said, “Our government has been insulted. Common people do not know there is a political colour to it. The people behind the political colour, she said, “Do not want justice. They want the chair.” “In the interest of the people, I am ready to step down. I do not want the post of the Chief Minister. I want justice for Tilottama. And I want common people to get medical treatment,” the Chief Minister said at a press conference after waiting two hours for the junior doctors’ delegation.
The doctors had come till the gate of the secretariat for the meeting that was expected to begin at 5 pm. But they refused to enter as the government had refused one of their demands – the live transmission of the proceedings.
Escorted by a pilot police vehicle, the delegation of the junior doctors had reached the secretariat building around 5.25 p.m., some 25 minutes past the scheduled time of commencement of the meeting. The delegation was seen waiting till 5.45 p.m. outside Nabanna Sabhaghar, the meeting venue at the Secretariat, completing entry formalities for all members of the delegation who were granted access by the government. At the meeting venue, both doctors and senior government officials were separately huddled in meetings, perceptively to decide whether or not to live stream the meeting proceedings. The doctors who arrived at the State Secretariat are insisting on live streaming of the meeting, which the State government is not accepting as a prerequisite to the meeting. The Chief Minister has been waiting for over one and half hours, State’s Chief Secretary Manoj Pant said.
Visuals released by the TMC showed Banerjee sitting in an empty auditorium with rows of chairs and tables laid out in a semi-circle before her. Banerjee while addressing a press conference said she waited for 2 hours but the doctors did not show up, “If people want justice, I am ready to resign for people’s interest. I don’t want CM’s chair.”
“We have been waiting for two hours to meet the doctors. We had written to them and they said they would come and that is why we made these arrangements. We wanted to have discussion with an open mind. The Chief Secretary, the Director-General of Police, Home Secretary… were all here,” she added.
Clarifying why the government did not allow the live streaming of the discussion, the Bengal Chief Minister said, “Since the matter is subjudice, therefore it is not possible to show live. I tried thrice to hold talks with junior doctors to end the protest. I will still not take any action against agitating junior doctors, will forgive them since we are elders.”
After the doctors did not attend the meeting following the state government’s refusal to hold a live telecast, Mr Pant said, “We have tried our best to make them understand. We have explained to them what all arrangements have been made. We have made recording arrangements so that the entire proceedings are well documented. There should be trust between the two parties… We want to listen to them.”
“There should not be any difference of opinion in it, there is no conflict situation. Both of us are working with the same objective. So I don’t understand why they are feeling that unless there is live streaming we will not go to the meeting. We want to document everything and discuss it with them properly,” he added.
Ms Banerjee said they were carrying out instructions. “I know many in the delegation were interested in talks. But two of three people were giving instructions from outside. We have all that. We could see that because it was being recorded by the press, which were standing right behind… They were giving instructions – ‘Do not negotiate, do not go to the meeting’,” Ms Banerjee said.
Ms Banerjee had invited the doctors to meet at the state secretariat at 5 pm. At 25 minutes past the hour a delegation of 32 doctors – 15 over the limit set by the government – arrived, but they refused to enter the hall because officials said the meeting could not be live-streamed. At 7 pm the Chief Minister addressed the media, stating she had been waiting for over two hours today, and had seen two earlier invitations rebuffed, but insisting she was not angry. “We have been waiting for two hours to meet our brothers and sisters… we had written to them and they said they would come, and that was why we made these arrangements,” she said.
The protesting doctors had set three pre-conditions to attend talks – that Ms Banerjee be present, that at least 30 of them be allowed, and that the meeting be live-streamed. After two earlier invitations to talks were rejected, for failing to meet these demands, the state this afternoon issued a third, accepting that Ms Banerjee would be present but continuing to limit the delegation size to 15 and insisting proceedings would not be live-streamed. The protesting doctors appeared to accept; they drove up to the state secretariat in a bus, but it soon became clear there were more than 15 and they were sticking to the live-stream demand.
Chief Secretary Manoj Pant and Bengal Police chief Rajiv Kumar both said today’s impasse was over that issue. “We allowed all 32 to attend but they demanded live-streaming… we said this cannot be allowed. We have said we will record it,” Mr Pant told reporters, adding the doctors had then declared they would not come to the meeting till all pre-conditions are met.
Junior doctors have been holding a sit-in protest outside the state’s Health Department HQ for several days now, even though their senior colleagues have returned to work following a plea by the Supreme Court. They have criticised the state for not meeting to hear their concerns.
The agitating doctors have five core concerns. The demands include holding to account all those responsible for the rape and murder of their colleague, as well as destruction of evidence, and to take strict disciplinary action against Dr Sandip Ghosh, the former RG Kar Hospital head who has been arrested by the CBI. The doctors have also demanded the sacking of Kolkata Police chief Vineet Goyal, whose leadership of the force has been heavily criticised, and Health Secretary Narayan Swaroop.
The protesting doctors have also asked for adequate security for healthcare workers, particularly the elimination of a “threat culture” they claimed to be rampant in the state-run hospitals. In his first letter to the doctors Mr Pant pointed out the doctors had overrun the deadline set by the Supreme Court – to return to work by 5 pm Tuesday. “You will, no doubt, appreciate and agree that, as a law-abiding citizen, it is everyone’s duty to adhere to (the court’s) directions…” he said.
The Supreme Court, which took suo motu cognisance of the RG Kar horror, had left it to the Bengal government to deal with the striking junior doctors. So far, however, Ms Banerjee has not taken any action, undoubtedly aware of the political firestorm to be unleashed if she does. Both the Chief Minister and the state government are aware that negotiating a peaceful end to this protest will go a long way to neutralising public anger over the woman’s rape and killing.