Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 14: Her elderly sister like gesture helped the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to break the ice with the agitating junior doctors who have agreed for a meeting with her to resolve the impasse that has hit the health services in the state-run hospitals in the state.
The West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant on Saturday issued yet another invitation to the protesting doctors for a meeting at Ms Banerjee’s Kolkata residence later in the evening to discuss their demands and work out a solution over their strike going on since the rape and murder of a trainee postgraduate doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.
Mr Pant extended the invitation after the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front wrote to him hours after she visited their protest site in Salt Lake. Taking a surprise step to end the impasse between her government and protesting doctors, Ms Banerjee on Saturday visited the site where the medics are staging a sit-in and addressed them.
The medicos appreciated her gesture which came after they thrice rebuffed the government’s invitations for talks, twice refused to honour the deadline set by the Supreme Court to resume duty and top of it wrote a letter to the President Droupadi Murmu and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for intervention leaving the ball at the centre’s court for a solution.
The junior doctors’ front welcomed her visit to their protest site and in their letter to Mr Pant insisted on an audience with her to discuss their demands after which the invitation was issued for the meeting.
Ms Banerjee reached the protest site on Saturday and struck a conciliatory tone, asking if she could address the doctors. Amid slogan-shouting she said in Bengali, “Please listen to me for five minutes and then shout slogans, it is your democratic right to do so. I have been waiting for a long time. Against the advice of my security officers, I have come here to salute your protests. I have also been part of student movements, I know my post is not a big deal, your voice is. It was raining all night and you suffered. I couldn’t sleep either because I was feeling bad.”
Acknowledging that the protests had been going on for over a month, she urged the protesting doctors to return to work, assuring them that the government would lend a sympathetic ear to their demands.
“I will study the demands, I don’t run the government alone. I will speak to the chief secretary, home secretary and director general of police. Action will be taken against those who are found guilty. I want justice for Tilottama (the name given to the woman who was raped and murdered). From your platform, I will request the CBI to speed up the investigation. I request you, I need some time to consider your demands. If you trust me, come and talk to me, I will look into your demands,” she assured the doctors.
Urging the protesters to return to work, she said their families were worried about them and many patients had died because they did not get proper healthcare. “Return to work. I will ensure that no injustice happens. I will set up committees in every hospital which will have senior and junior doctors as members. Everyone found guilty will be punished, it is not like they are my friends (referring to the demand for the resignation of some officials). Please talk amongst yourselves and return to work, I will not take any action. In Uttar Pradesh, action was taken, I won’t do that. I know you work a lot, I know how important you are,” she said.
“This is my last attempt to resolve the crisis… If you keep your faith in me, I will look into your complaints. The case is on in the Supreme Court (which had set a September 10 deadline for the doctors to return to work) and the next hearing is on Tuesday. I don’t want you to suffer. I have come to make a request as your ‘didi’ (big sister), not as a chief minister. I am empathetic and I support your protest… I had also gone on a hunger strike for 26 days (during the protest against the acquisition of farmland in Singur), but no one from the then government came to speak to me,” Ms Banerjee added.
“I came to meet you as your ‘Didi’ (elder sister), not as the Chief Minister…This is my last attempt to resolve the crisis,” Ms Banerjee told the protesting doctors. The Chief Minister also assured the protesting doctors like her brothers and sisters that she would not take action against them.
The Chief Minister said like the doctors who are protesting in the open and spending sleepless nights in inclement weather conditions, she is unable to sleep at night. Accompanied by State Director General of Police Rajiv Kumar, Ms Banerjee reached the site at Salt Lake Sector 5 around 1 p.m., taking those present there by surprise.
The Chief Minister announced that she is dissolving all the “Rogi Kalyan Commitee (Patient Welfare Body)’ of all state-run hospitals, including R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital. Protesting doctors welcomed the visit of the Chief Minister but said they would not withdraw the strike till their demands are met. The doctors urged for immediate talks with the State Government to resolve the imbroglio.
The five-point demand of doctors includes the removal of the Kolkata Police Commissioner and senior officials of the State Health Department. The other demands of the doctors include increased security for health workers and an end to the “threat culture” in hospitals and medical colleges across West Bengal.
Talks between the state government and the agitating doctors could not take place because the state government did not agree to their demand for live telecast of the meeting on the ground that the matter was pending before the Supreme Court. They then wrote the letter to Ms Murmu and Mr Modi with copies to the vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar and the union health minister JP Nadda.
The Chief Minister had earlier said, “29 precious lives have been lost due to disruption in health services because of long-drawn cease work by junior doctors.” She even announced financial relief of Rs two lakhs each to the families whose kin have died due to “disruption” of health services.
The protesting doctors had laid siege to the Swastha Bhavan on September 10, a day after the Supreme Court urged the doctors to resume duty. A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of India Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said on September 9 (Monday) that doctors cannot remain oblivious to the needs of the community they are intended to serve and appealed them to return to work by 5 p.m. on September 10, 2024.