Trinamul leader Kunal Ghosh on Friday said that FIRs should be filed against the two junior doctors leading the RG Kar protest movement, Dr Debashish Haldar and Dr Aniket Mahato, if any patient dies during the strike the junior doctors have threatened from Tuesday onwards if the Mamata Banerjee government doesn’t fulfil their demands.
Ghosh’s post came hours before the junior doctors’ meeting with chief minister Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat in Howrah at 5pm on Monday.
“If the meeting called by the chief minister is sabotaged because of unjustified stubbornness to create anarchy in the medical system and anything happens to any patients during the strike called from Tuesday, then FIRs should be filed against Debashish Haldar and Aniket Mahato. These two are the main conspirators,” Ghosh posted on his X (formerly Twitter) handle.
As days have turned into months since a postgraduate trainee doctor was raped and murdered inside the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, the ruling Trinamul has launched an attack on the doctors, vilifying a section of the medicos.
Bengal chief secretary Manoj Pant, who had facilitated a call between the junior doctors on hunger strike at Esplanade and the chief minister on Saturday afternoon, has made it clear that only 10 representatives will be allowed at the meeting on Monday and they have to call off the hunger strike as a pre-condition.
The chief minister, too, while talking to the junior doctors on hunger strike had expressed her anger over having been kept waiting on previous occasions and their demand for the removal of the health secretary Narayan Swarup Nigam.
On Sunday following a general body meeting, the junior doctors’ leader Haldar had made it clear the hunger strike would not end unless their ten-point demands were met.
The junior doctors also expressed their unhappiness with the manner in which the conversation with the chief minister took place on Saturday afternoon over the phone held by chief secretary Pant.
“Our colleagues have been on hunger strike for over 15 days but the chief minister appeared entirely unaware of our demands. Is this how a chief minister conducts a crucial meeting over the phone on a crowded dais?” asked a junior doctor.
The junior doctors, when they were on a cease-work, had demanded live streaming of the meeting with the chief minister, which was rejected by the government on every occasion.
If Monday evening’s meeting – to be completed within 45 minutes – fails, the healthcare sector in Bengal, both state-run and private, will go for an indefinite strike, putting the state into an unprecedented healthcare crisis.
Trinamul leader Ghosh has said along with the names of Haldar and Mahato (who went on hunger from October 5 and had to be hospitalised), the names of the hospital and doctor concerned should also be mentioned in the FIR.
“Getting medical treatment is your fundamental right. To deprive people from getting treatment employing provocative methods is a legal offence,” Ghosh.
“Because of the hunger strike, if anything happens to the junior doctors these two, along with those who have been pushing them, would be held responsible. Like a guardian the chief minister has handled the matter sensitively. The junior doctors should withdraw the hunger strike and attend the meeting. Don’t fall into the trap set by the Left and the ultra-Left.”
Reacting to Ghosh’s threat, Kinjal Nanda, one of the protesting doctors wrote on his Facebook wall: “The decision was not Haldar and Mahato’s alone. It was taken by the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Forum. From day one we have been trying to sit down for discussion. It could not happen because of the festivities. And if he is talking about sabotage, before the meeting, two emails were sent but you (the government) did not remember to reply to it. The question whether they are really interested in ending the impasse remains. The movement was not started at a whim. A doctor has lots of work to do. It is difficult to explain this to someone who is not a doctor. Personal attacks has become second nature now.”
