The senior doctors of Bengal who support the junior doctors’ cease-work in protest against the Bengal government over the rape and murder at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital will file a petition before the Supreme Court on the attacks that have happened on medics in the state over the last couple of weeks.
The next Supreme Court hearing in the RG Kar case is due next week.
“The state government has completely lost the right to ask the junior doctors to resume work because it has not been able to ensure their safety and security at the workplace,” said Dr Subarno Goswami, additional general secretary, All India Federation of Government Doctors’ Association, and joint secretary, Association of Health Services Doctors.
“In the Supreme Court, the state’s counsel who is representing the government blamed the junior doctors over the death of a patient at the Sagore Dutta Hospital. We have decided to submit an affidavit with details including newspaper clippings and video footage of the attacks on doctors that have happened,” Goswami said.
“The government should file an affidavit with the evidence that the death of the patients have happened because of the junior doctors.”
Goswami said the government’s stand in the Supreme Court seemed to justify the attacks on the junior doctors.
“If a patient dies does it mean the doctors should be beaten up for that? The government is encouraging mobocracy. There is no rule of law in the state. Neither the doctors nor the police are safe,” Goswami said.
On Wednesday morning, enraged residents forced the officer-in-charge of the Patuli police station in the southern suburbs of Calcutta into a slush pool following the death of a teenager while the road was under repair.
During the last hearing at the Supreme Court, the Bengal government’s counsel Rakesh Dwivedi had blamed the junior doctors for the death of a woman at the College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital, after counsel for the senior doctors, Karuna Nundy, raised the issue.
“A patient died because there was no bed provided, no doctor attended,” Dwivedi said in the court.
Nundy protested against the assertion.
In another incident last Sunday at the Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital, the kin of a patient who was brought in for treatment roughed up junior doctors.
The junior doctors of Bengal went on a fresh cease-work with a fresh charter of demands from October 1 onwards following the attacks.
“Cease-work will continue for now. We will decide on our next step later. Right now we are on cease-work,” said Aniket Mahato of the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front.
At a convention held in Jadavpur on Wednesday, cardio-thoracic surgeon Kunal Sarkar and former Trinamul Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar had urged the junior doctors to resume their duties considering that the most vulnerable section of the society depends on them for healthcare. Sircar had resigned from Parliament as well as the party protesting against the Trinamul’s handling of the aftermath of the RG Kar horror,
Dr Goswami agreed with Sarkar and Sircar.
“On the safety and security issue we are on the same page as the junior doctors,” Goswami said. “[But] they have to understand that the ruling party’s MPs, MLAs, ministers and other leaders have started giving inflammatory statements against the movement. The Trinamul is desperate to isolate the people from the movement.
“So far, even the poorest of the poor have supported the medical fraternity’s demand for justice and to ensure a corruption-free system,” he added. “In case of some untoward incidents [such as the death of a patient while the junior doctors are on cease-work] the tide of support will turn. We have to stop the Trinamul’s strategy from working.”