The junior doctors protesting against the rape and the murder of their colleague at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital along with a number of other issues have withdrawn their fast-unto-death initiative and called off a proposed total shutdown of Bengal’s healthcare system that was to begin from Tuesday. The decision is welcome, even if it was a bit of an anticlimax. The announcement was made after a group of doctors met the chief minister in a meeting in which the government reiterated its positive response to a number of their demands. These include, among others, the constitution of a state-level workforce to examine complaints regarding government healthcare institutions, the holding of student union elections, transparency in college examinations, the establishment of a healthy ambience in facilities and so on. The doctors have clarified that their decision to call off their fast was on account of a request by the parents of the R.G. Kar victim: yet questions will remain regarding what led to the sudden withdrawal. The biggest sigh of relief at the announcement must have come from the families of patients who need urgent medical intervention. Data suggest that patient footfall had fallen drastically in state-run hospitals and 91% of surgeries had been adversely affected during the period that coincided with the doctors’ stir. The doctors’ fast is over but not their protest. The future course of the agitation and its reception among the people remain to be seen. As for Bengal’s ruling dispensation, it would now take stock of the hostile political consequences, if any, of the protest.

A look at some of the principal features of the doctors’ protest is not unwarranted. It was unprecedented in terms of scale and public response. The ordinary people’s participation in and support of the movement showed that the issues that the doctors raised had touched a deeper social chord. The doctors claimed that their movement was apolitical even though there are whispers that the fraternity of physicians was not exactly immune to the pressures being exerted by radical Left constituencies. But the modus operandi of the protest — which severely disrupted state healthcare services — left a lot to be desired. This shows that troublesome means can be employed to achieve a moral end.