Several Trinamool Congress leaders mounted a verbal offensive on those participating in post-RG Kar protests, particularly doctors, in yet another indication of warnings from Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee going unheeded.

Kunal Ghosh, Debu Tudu, Deboprasad Bag, Partha Bhowmick and Tapas Chatterjee joined the ceaselessly growing list of Trinamool leaders publicly attacking the medical fraternity, even as agitations for justice in the wake of the RG Kar tragedy refused to die down.

Barrackpore MP Bhowmick led the charge, virtually echoed in various pockets of the state by East Burdwan’s former zilla parishad chief Tudu, Kalna MLA Bag and Rajarhat-New Town MLA Chatterjee.

At a Vijaya get-together in Haroa, MP Bhowmick accused the CPM of manipulating support for the protests. He referred to the CPM as a “cobra” currently shedding “fake tears”, which would reveal its true nature over time.

He implied that although the agitating junior doctors, some of whom are on a fast-unto-death, were saying their movement was non-partisan, they were secretly being controlled by the Left.

In East Burdwan, Tudu mocked the protesting doctors, referring to them as sons of “red-masked Englishmen” from "China and Russia", “Who are these people? These are the same ones who exploited you for 35 years,” he said, again implying the movement was being tacitly controlled by the Left.

In Calcutta, MLA Chatterjee accused doctors of creating chaos by aligning with the Left and the BJP. Virtually echoing him, Ghosh added that lists of such “masked” doctors were being drawn up by the party, and would be sent to the administration for action.

Last month, Mamata had warned her party’s senior leadership against public criticism of the movement and its participants, especially the doctors.

Her warning had followed a public statement by her nephew and heir apparent Abhishek, who had appealed to the Trinamool ecosystem against speaking ill of anybody from the medical fraternity or the civil society — sections that have been up in arms against the ruling dispensation in the wake of the August 9 RG Kar rape-and-murder. Abhishek had also endorsed the right to protest and freedom of expression.

“The allegations made by these ruling party leaders are a figment of their imagination. They have been trying to discredit us and our movement,” said a protesting doctor. “The truth is, the people are supporting us wholeheartedly, without political backing....”

CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty said: “The way TMC leaders are attacking the doctors and the movement shows that they are now truly very afraid.... Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee had specifically instructed their leaders not to speak against the doctors, so these comments are significant in terms of their open defiance.”

The BJP’s chief spokesperson for Bengal, Samik Bhattacharya, said that the more Trinamool leaders speak against the movement, the sooner they would be driven out of the state.