The West Bengal government came quite a bit of the way to break the deadlock with the protesting junior doctors. Not that fulfilling all their demands was in its hands. The Supreme Court, for example, in the latest hearing of the R.G. Kar rape and murder case, pronounced that a disclosure of the details of the Central Bureau of Investigation’s inquiry, as the doctors demanded, would disrupt the CBI’s work at a crucial stage. The agitating doctors were, once again, requested to go back to work; the West Bengal government assured the court that no action shall be taken against them. After their ‘cease work’ for 38 days and sit-in at various spots, the last in front of Swasthya Bhavan, the government conceded to most of their demands the day before the Supreme Court hearing. Four foiled efforts at a meeting notwithstanding, the chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, agreed to transfer the commissioner of police and the deputy commissioner (north); the latter had allegedly offered money to the parents of the doctor who died. Ms Banerjee also agreed to transfer the director of health education and the director of health services as the striking doctors wanted, although she was unable to fulfil their demand to remove the health secretary since that would cause the health department to collapse. Measures for safety and security are being implemented across state-run medical colleges and hospitals: the Supreme Court is overseeing the government’s engagement with the issues and has ordered that its provision that women do not work at night be removed.

The minutes of the meeting were signed by both sides, ensuring that Rs 100 crore be used by the government for safety measures, a task force to oversee these, formation of a patients’ welfare committee and the instituting of a grievance redressal mechanism. All this is to the good although the agreement came rather late, especially for patients awaiting treatment at government hospitals. But how healthy was this as a precedent? Doctors perform an essential service. Their ‘cease work’ for more than a month became the negotiating counter in a war of attrition. The government certainly has much to answer for — there is no doubt of that. At the same time, it cannot let the sick suffer. Protest is a democratic right, but so are discussion, debate, and access to State healthcare. There is no place for rigidity in these.