The protests in a State-run Kolkata hospital on June 10 after relatives of an old man who died of natural causes beat up a couple of junior doctors on duty could not have spread countrywide had the State Government not adopted a cavalier attitude. Instead of applying balm on the wounds of the doctors, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sprayed salt, accusing them of being irresponsible and politically-motivated.
Failing to grasp the seriousness of the situation when a 200-strong mob beat up doctors and nursing staff and generally indulged in rowdy acts, she used harsh language against the agitating doctors and threatened to lock all of them in case they failed to resume work immediately. This only fuelled the protests further. While they shut down the out-patient department, in some hospitals even the emergency services were affected. Senior doctors in government hospitals in West Bengal resigned in sympathy with the striking doctors. Despite the token presence of a policeman at the hospital at the time of the attack, no effort was made to summon additional force to quell the mayhem and to arrest the culprits.
Mamata openly took the side of the violent mob. Consequently, it was only after the doctors’ strike spread throughout the State that the police perforce claimed to have arrested five persons for the June 10th violence and rioting. Admittedly, what happened in the said Kolkata hospital was not unique. Several incidents of violence and beatings by relatives of patients, who feel aggriev ed at the supposed lack of attention by the nursing staff and doctors on duty or are distraught at the death of a dear- one, take place every year in major hospitals all over the country.
The failure of the small security and police detail at the hospital is never adequate to prevent the sudden eruption of violence in some part of the hospital at odd hours of the day or night. In view of the increasing incidence of violence by relatives of patients, a law specific to this situation ought to be framed. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, tweeting in the wake of the West Bengal incidents, has suggested that the attack on doctors be made a non-bailable offence with a minimum imprisonment of twelve years for the offenders. Without doubt, the suggestion needs to be implemented after discussion with relevant stakeholders.
Also, Vardhan in a communication to Banerjee counseled “better communication with the agitating doctors and a compassionate approach towards them.” However, after her initial belligerent attitude, the West Bengal CM seemed to have grasped the seriousness of the situation when the strike spread to all hospitals, not only in Kolkata but throughout the State. On Friday, hospitals in all big cities in the country observed strike in OPDs in solidarity with the protesting Kolkata doctors. The Indian Medical Association has given a call for a nationwide strike on June 17. But Mamata saw in the escalating situation the hand of her political enemies, saying that outsiders were interfering in Bengal. She sought to turn it into a Bengali versus non-Bengali fight, while the truth was that the ugly situation had arisen only because the hoodlums had been given a free hand to run riot even inside Kolkata’s one of the top hospitals.
So blinded was she by her own prejudice that she ignored her ministers who openly sympathised with the protesting doctors. Indeed, the daughter of West Bengal Health Minister, a medical intern in one of the State-run hospitals, publicly came out in support of the doctors. So did eminent citizens such as the film-maker Aparna Sen and a few others. At the time of writing it was not clear how the standoff between the doctors and West Bengal Government would end, but it was becoming increasingly clear that the outcome of the parliamentary poll has unsettled Mamata Banerjee, she is not her usual composed and confident self any longer. In fact, she single-handedly allowed the initial strike by the junior doctors to escalate into a State-wide protest. Her erratic and aggressive behavior does not help her cause. If the fear of BJP is beginning to loom large ahead of the 2021 Assembly poll, she should tone up her administration, prevent the ruling party goons from running police stations, work for the welfare of all irrespective of their religion, and behave in a less shrill and temperamental manner. A rattled Mamata will only make the task of keeping the BJP at bay that much more difficult.
