Tuesday, 08 October 2024
Tuesday, 08 October 2024
Most parts of Calcutta saw quite a downpour on Tuesday morning but there was no dampening of the resolve at the protest site in the heart of the city where seven junior doctors are on a hunger strike unto death.
The protest by the doctors received a fillip with 50 senior doctors from RG Kar resigning en masse in solidarity with the protesting juniors.
The junior doctors are on strike in protest against what they call the government’s inaction on their demands to clean up the public healthcare system in Bengal in the aftermath of the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at RG Kar medical College and Hospital on August 9.
When The Telegraph Online visited the protest site on Tuesday morning, there seemed to be a significant increase in support from Monday, with many senior doctors participating in a 24-hour hunger strike.
There was also a bigger crowd of common people at the protest site. They included students from a nearby reputed girls school, some accompanied by their parents.
“If a home has a large number of termites, that home needs a proper termite treatment. Similarly, the doctors want a termite treatment,” Dr Sanghamitta Bhattacharya, 52, who is observing a hunger strike on Tuesday to support the junior doctors, told The Telegraph Online.
“They are continuously demanding the removal of the corrupt officials, which is not wrong,” she said. “We are not at all happy with the recent charge sheet of the CBI. We all know the way Abhaya died, the way her legs were twisted. If Sanjay Roy was a big rakshas or a big asur then it would have been possible, otherwise no. The authority of the hospital claimed that the deceased is like his daughter, so why are they not punishing them?”
Among the common people at the protest site was Debabrata Das, 39, a professor of English at Rabindra Bharati University. He had brought his 9-year-old daughter, too.
“I came here with my daughter today to make her see the meaning of justice and struggle,” Das told The Telegraph Online. “These doctors are struggling for justice for the betterment of all of us. I want my daughter to learn how to demand for justice. The Jaynagar incident [where a child was murdered, allegedly after being raped] happened with a 9-year-old. I am scared for my daughter.”
Asked about the CBI charge sheet, Das said: “This is the first charge sheet of the CBI and supplementary chargesheets will also come forward. This is an institutional murder and in such a case normally more than one person is involved. I think more truths will come out.”
At the protest site, the junior doctors who have been on hunger strike for days appeared visibly weak, resting between moments of standing up to chant for justice. Their colleagues said that some of the fasting doctors were already showing signs of physical strain, with ketones detected in their urine, an indicator of prolonged fasting.
“I come to the protest site everyday at 9am and stay up to 9 to 10pm. I am also fasting during those hours to support my fellow colleagues,” Soham Paul, 27, a junior doctor at Midnapore Medical College, told The Telegraph Online.
“Our demands have not been met and the process is extremely slow. If the government wants they can very easily accept our demands but they do not wish to. The demands can be met in one day. They do not want to address our demands as they know that deep inside there is so much corruption and threat culture that it may create issues.”
He echoed what many at the protest site said about the CBI charge sheet that has reportedly named Sanjay Roy, the civic volunteer who was arrested by Kolkata Police, as the sole key accused in the rape and murder of the young doctor at RG Kar.
“Sanjoy Roy is the culprit? How big is he? If just one civic volunteer is involved in this then how influential is he that from the police commissioner to the principal everyone became active to tamper with evidence? Surely there was someone big involved in this,” Paul said.
“We knew the government would not do anything,” said Dr Abid Hassan, 24, a volunteer at the protest site who is an intern at SSKM hospital.
“We cannot expect anything more from a government that is involved in hiding and tampering of evidence. We wanted the CBI to investigate so that it can work outside state influence, but their [CBI’s] own record is bad in this. We cannot expect justice from them.
“According to them Sanjoy Roy is the only accused but the person who was sitting above him is being hidden,” Hassan said. “The brutality by which Abhaya has been murdered, this is not possible. Even the solicitor general in the Supreme Court is not working in our favour.”
A large whiteboard at the site is keeping track of the fasting doctors' blood pressure and CBG status. Yet, the crowd's growing presence, especially with school students and their parents joining in, brought a sense of solidarity and urgency to the protest.
“I have been coming and going from the protest site on and off as I have duties to attend in college,” Priyanjali Mondal, 23, an intern at Midnapore Medical College, told The Telegraph Online.
“It takes three hours from here to travel to Midnapore. I am doing it as I want to support my colleagues. It's been 59 days without justice, we must know the status report of CBI and it should not be confidential because we deserve to know more. In my college as a female student I am so scared to stay in a hostel. After this case there has been a huge decline in the female population. The security of the college does nothing, they are just commoners who have been hired. There have been instances of unknown people walking into our hostel at night and we girls have to shoo them away with broomsticks,” Mondal added.
The Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) has also announced a nationwide hunger strike on Wednesday in solidarity with the protesting junior doctors of Bengal.
