Chief minister Mamata Banerjee pulled up principals and medical superintendent-cum-vice-principals (MSVPs) of government medical colleges during her meeting with representatives of the protesting junior doctors at Nabanna on Monday.

“The junior doctors pointed out that if there is a problem, who will they get in touch with? For this, the principals and the MSVPs play a very important role. But I must say some principals and the MSVPs don’t play their role properly. I totally agree with you (junior doctors),” the chief minister said.

She even accused the principals of playing “political roles”.

“Some principals play political roles (rajnoitik role palan koren). We have this information as well.... While selecting principals, we have to take into account whether the aspirant has the experience and other credentials. However, please don’t assume that we have influenced all the principals in our way,” Mamata said.

The principals and MSVPs of five government medical colleges in the city attended the meeting.

The chief minister told the principals to be fair while making their decisions and not get influenced by any side.

“The principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital is present here. You have suspended 47 students. However, you did not inform us about this. You should have sent the recommendations first to the health department and the health department should have consulted me. You sent the recommendations to the university (West Bengal University of Health Science),” she said.

“I made you principal so you could take care of all. You can have a grudge against someone. You can get allegations against someone. But you are making all the decisions on your own. Is this not a threat culture? I will request the principals to let us
know before suspending someone. I do not want to destroy the academic future of a student.”

The RG Kar authorities had on September 11 barred 51 junior doctors and students from entering the campus and formed a committee to probe allegations of intimidation against them.

The decision was taken after the protesting resident doctors alleged that these 51 junior doctors and students were promoting a “threat culture” on the campus.

On Monday, Aniket Mahata, a familiar face of the protests by junior doctors, described these 51 as “notorious criminals”. But the chief minister insisted that a measure like suspension should go through a more stringent vetting process.

The chief minister raised the role of the principals after a protesting junior doctor said the students who feel harassed on the campus do not know who they should approach for redress.

Mahata, who was on a hunger strike till his condition turned critical and he had to be taken to hospital, said: “As a third-year resident doctor of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, I know how some of the boys and girls have been harassed over the past three to four years. There have been varied levels of harassment — sexual molestation, extortion and threats. The campus lacked the bare minimum environment…. If a woman was harassed, she did not have anywhere to go.”

Mahata went on to say that it was not that female students did not approach the principal, MSVP or deans. “If you go through the records, you will find that she approached the MSVP, the principal and even the deans. And a counter-complainant has been lodged against her.... We don’t want such a campus,” said Mahata.

He did not mention the name of former RG Kar principal Sandip Ghosh, on whose watch a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor was raped and murdered and who has since been arrested by theCBI, but Ghosh stands accused of not addressing the grievances of the students during his tenure which started in 2021.

Kinjal Nanda, one ofthe protesting junior doctors present at Monday’s meeting, said the person who heldthe principal’s post beforethe incumbent “made students wait outside hischamber at least for two hours” if they went to meet him. Nanda was referring to Ghosh.

Mahata said the principal is their guardian on the campus. “If we don’t go to them, who will we approach?”

Ghosh, who resigned from the post of RG Kar principal following protests over the rape and murder, was transferred by the state government to the National Medical College and Hospital in the same rank.

Many believe this move further aggravated the protests.

Calcutta High Court restrained Ghosh from assuming the charge of National Medical College and sent him on leave until further orders.

The state government later constituted a committee to probe complaints of financial irregularities against Ghosh as the protests grew bigger and louder.