Jr docs call off fast on 17th day after 2hr meet with CM
Times of India | 22 October 2024
Kolkata: Protesting junior doctors withdrew their 17-day hunger strike two hours after a meeting with CM Mamata Banerjee and other govt seniors at Nabanna on Monday evening. West Bengal Junior Doctors' Front also decided not to go ahead with their strike call across hospitals — both state-run and private — on Tuesday but made it clear that their agitation would go on.
Monday's twin decisions came after a two-hour meeting at Nabanna, which was scheduled to last for only 45 minutes. It was the sixth between doctors and state seniors since Sept 14; CM Banerjee was personally present in three of them. The protesting junior doctors, however, said their decision followed appeals from the parents of the young R G Kar doctor, who was raped and murdered on Aug 9, and sections of the public.
Monday's meeting saw Banerjee employ a mix of persuasive skills and combativeness as she set its tone even before its start with the decision to live-stream the meeting. Live-streaming of meetings was one of the doctors' key demands that actually led to the first being called off.
Banerjee reinforced the state's combative attitude as she brushed aside one of the doctors' key demands soon after the start of Monday's talks: resignation of state health secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam. "You cannot label someone guilty before proving the allegations though you can certainly complain," Banerjee said firmly. The CM herself and state seniors have repeatedly said the composition of the bureaucracy is "beyond the jurisdiction" of protesting doctors. The govt also said it would not be able to scrap the current West Bengal Medical Council because of legal complications.
"When you start an agitation, you must also know when to step back," the CM chided the doctors gently, adding: "The door to the mind always needs to be open, the only door to lock is that of your house at night.
" She added, "We have our limitations. But you cannot hold on to your ego. We have tried our best.
"
She reminding the doctors of her own days of agitation-politics, the CM said: "I led a 21-day stir in 1993. Then PM P V Narsimha Rao sent me a two-line note, promising to discuss the issue with me on a later date. I respected that and withdrew. Not a single state official met me during the 26-day Singur agitation. But I am ready to talk to you.
"
"The state spends Rs 1 crore on (the education of) every medical graduate, Rs 2 crore on a postgraduate. You are our assets. We may come to you some day (for treatment). What will we do if you refuse treatment?" she asked, adding that she was "not someone who will sleep at night when you are out on the road". "I check with my officers about your health. I know three of you have creatinine issues. But you have a future. Two months have passed. I do not want you to suffer any more. I have already requested you to withdraw your hunger strike, I will do so again," she said.
Banerjee was also careful to give the doctors' delegations several concessions that could act as a face-saver for them to call of their hunger strike, which started on October 5. Several fasting doctors have gone to hospital from the "fast-unto-death" dais at Esplanade and recovered after brief hospital stays. On Monday, when the fast was called off, there were seven fasting doctors at Esplanade and an eighth in Siliguri.
One of the key agreements was the establishment of a state-level apex task force comprising five doctors and five state representatives who would monitor the functioning of all other committees overseeing medical education. The government also agreed to have college-level committees with adequate doctors' representation to oversee the functioning of hospitals.
Students' union elections, another of the doctors' key demands, will happen by March 2025. The government also said it was committed to holding free and fair medical exams. "No one will be allowed to influence anything," the CM said. The tampering of results was one of the protesting doctors' key allegations; this allowed the perpetrators of "threat culture" to coerce everyone into submission.
Banerjee acknowledged that many medical college principals and superintendents did not carry out their responsibilities properly. "Some principals play a political role," she said. "Open a desk. If a girl is in trouble and files a complaint, bring it to us. A task force has been created. Meetings are necessary every month. No one should threaten anyone. We need to move away from this culture," she told medical college principals who attended Monday's meeting.
But the CM also made her strong displeasure known about several issues, including how inappropriate it was for the junior doctors' lawyer in Supreme Court to demean Bengal publicly (by claiming that only cotton wool was available in state-run hospitals). She also presented documents that showed how 563 doctors engaged in private practice and made millions while being on strike at state-run hospitals. She was livid at the suspension of 59 junior doctors at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital without Nabanna being kept in the loop. "You have suspended 47 people without Nabanna's approval. Isn't this threat culture as well? Why did I make you the principal? So you could take care of everyone," Banerjee reprimanded R G Kar principal Manas Bandyopadhyay, prompting R G Kar junior doctors Aniket Mahata and Kinjal Nanda to protest: "We had to wait two hours to enter the previous principal's office. Would I support criminals? Would I support rapists?" Nanda asked, prompting a heated debate.