Dombivli Assault: Dangers In The Line Of Doctor Duty

The case of Ramesh Mhatre, Shiv Sena corporator in Kalyan-Dombivli, burgeoning twin cities near Mumbai, and his accomplices assaulting on-duty doctors in a municipal hospital this week re-opened the phenomenon of powerful politicians taking the law into their hands against doctors, teachers, and bureaucrats. It is a reprehensible trend and deserves the fullest condemnation from all quarters. Mhatre and his accomplices were arrested after the video clip of him slapping the doctors, including a woman, went viral and left the Devendra Fadnavis government with no choice but to take stern action; he was admitted to a hospital immediately. It is the playbook that the powerful now adopt to escape time behind bars, but, thanks to the local court, Mhatre was taken into full custody on Friday.

That Shiv Sena leaders did not summarily sack him but defended his hospitalisation says a lot about the immunity that the powerful believe they enjoy. This is not unique to a city but endemic across India, especially in metropolises where people function under multiple stresses and are ready to launch verbal or physical violence at the slightest provocation, political leaders more so. The lack of prompt or satisfying treatment is often not the fault of on-duty doctors but of the over-burdened, ill-funded, and ill-equipped healthcare system. Doctors, who face thousands every day, take the worst of people’s rage against the system. More than 75 per cent of doctors reported an attack of some kind, according to the Indian Medical Association.

In extreme cases, a gynaecologist in Tuticorin was killed by the husband of a pregnant woman who had died after she was admitted in a serious condition; in Mansa, Punjab, a doctor’s clinic was burnt down by the family of a boy who died there. Teachers and principals have been attacked for teaching “wrong” content in classrooms and their faces blackened. Though political, Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash charged Aam Aadmi Party MLAs with staging a “premeditated attack” on him in 2021, leading to FIRs against 12 MLAs. The culture of violence against people discharging their duty seems deeply embedded.

As much as the violence has to do with the creaking nature of public services, especially poor-quality healthcare in public hospitals starved of resources, it has to do with the illusion of immunity that powerful politicians believe they have. Their atrocious behaviour, sometimes on behalf of their constituents like Mhatre’s, stems from the reality that they have rarely been taken to task for such assaults. Instead, this is seen as evidence of their power and earns them brownie points with political bosses. In any case, the Shiv Sena is a party that bred its cadres on violence as the first response; its workers had burnt down the Thane hospital where their leader, Anand Dighe, had died of cardiac arrest 25 years ago.