Show us way out of darkness: Kolkata junior doctors write to President
Times of India | 14 September 2024
KOLKATA: Junior doctors protesting to seek justice for RG Kar rape-murder victim have emailed President Droupadi Murmu urging her intervention to break the current impasse. Copies of the letter have also been sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar, and Union health minister J P Nadda.
The letters were sent on Thursday, about seven hours before the doctors went to Nabanna for talks but returned, keeping West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee waiting more than two hours after insisting their meeting with her and other govt seniors be live-streamed.
News about the emails - the first since the stir started on Aug 9 - broke only on Friday, 24 hours after they were sent, and led to questions from medical organisations about the direction the junior doctors' stir was taking.
The letter says that the President was being apprised of "the issues... so that we, healthcare professionals under West Bengal health department, may be able to discharge our duties to the public without fear and apprehension".
"Your intervention in these trying times will act as a beacon of light to us all, showing us the way ahead out of the darkness that surrounds us," the letter says, adding, "In this turbid atmosphere of fear, distrust and hopelessness, junior doctors in West Bengal have been forced to avoid working within the hospital premises and instead have taken alternative modes to discharge our duty of providing health care services."