RG Kar hospital protest: Junior doctors, eyeing a fresh start, to go back to stir’s birthplace
Times of India | 22 October 2024
KOLKATA: The junior doctors’ agitation — robbed of the totemic “fast-unto-death” protest — will now have to look at a fresh start if it has to stay as “broad-based and massbased” as it was during the first few weeks of the protests against the Aug 9 R G Kar rape-murder, say a section of junior and senior doctors who have been with the stir since its inception.
The West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front withdrew its hunger strike and also called off its health-sector strike, scheduled for Tuesday, after a general body meeting following its meeting with chief minister Mamata Banerjee and other state seniors.
The movement’s faces, including Debashis Haldar and Rumelika Kumar, attributed their twin withdrawals to appeals from the parents of the R G Kar rape-murder victim and a section of the public and declared the future course of their stir would be decided after a mass convention at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital this Saturday.
“The cessation of the hunger strike is by no means a conclusion to this protest and the relentless pursuit of justice. That demand will persist with the same intensity as it had been at the outset.
The hunger strike has been terminated, not because anyone else desired it, but because we have resolved to honour the wishes of Abhaya’s parents,” articulated Kumar, one of the doctors on hunger strike at Esplanade.
In a sense, the twin with drawal decisions (of the 17-day fast and today's healthsector strike) were “fait accompli”, some of the protesters told TOI. The gap of five days before their return to the R G Kar auditorium would afford them time to think how they could shape the future, they explained.
“The choice of R G Kar for the mass convention is also symbolic. This hospital — and the terrible crime that happened there — has been the origin of our agitation. And our agitation has also drawn sustenance from peo ple’s support. So people coming together at this hospital is the clearest signal we can send out before the start of another phase of the agitation,” one of the junior doctors explained.
One factor that has led to the calling off of the hunger strike as well as Tuesday’s health-sector strike — besides the public avowal of “appeals from the R G Kar victim's parents and a section of the public” — is the “realisation” that the stir, of late, has failed to sustain the momentum generated by the sort of mass enthusiasm that was so evident in the August 14 reclaim-the-night protests.
“Many of of our seniors warned us against going for a ‘fast-unto-death’ agitation,” one NRS Medical College and Hospital junior doctor told TOI. “We also sensed diminishing returns after public allegations that our agitation was being ‘hijacked’ by a section of CPM and ultra-left intelligentsia,” he said, adding that a fresh start was sorely needed.
“It was a wise decision to end the hunger strike. There are various ways of continuing their movement till all their demands are met and we will continue to support WBJDF in their further movement,” said physician Sajal Biswas of Service Doctors’ Forum.
“We welcome the decision of the WBJDF to end the hunger strike. We enjoyed their conversation with the CM where the junior doctors firmly put up their argument maintaining dignity,” said physician Biplab Chandra of Medical Service Centre.
Joint Platform of Doctors felt lack of intent on part of the state administration to reform the health system adding that institutional killings are inevitable unless systemic corruption is uprooted.