Kolkata/New Delhi: Nearly 300 doctors resigned from government hospitals in West Bengal on Friday as their protest against an attack on their colleagues earlier this week in Kolkata escalated. In solidarity, doctors at Delhi's AIIMS and in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana as well as other places, stayed away from work, demanding justice for their Bengal counterparts and enhanced security for practitioners. As the Indian Medical Association began its three-day nationwide protest, it also called for a nationwide strike on June 17. Blaming the Mamata Banerjee government for the stalemate, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan appealed to her to "not make it a prestige issue".
Banerjee, in turn, tried reaching out to protesting students and wanted to sit with them, sources claimed. But the striking doctors were adamant and have set six conditions, including an unconditional apology from the CM for the assault on their colleagues. Mamata’s get-back-to-work deadline of 2 pm has been emphatically ignored.
Amidst the protests, demands, ultimatums and apologies, a three-month-old child with spinal cord problem and other patients coming from various districts of West Bengal faced the brunt of the strike. Pictures of patients lying on pavements near city hospitals were a pointer to how the state's health care services have been completely throttled due to the "cease work" by
the junior doctors in state-run hospitals.The protests had erupted at the state-run NRS Hospital on Tuesday morning bringing the regular services to a standstill, after a junior doctor was allegedly beaten up by the kin of a 75-year-old patient who died there late on Monday night. The family members of the deceased patient alleged medical negligence. An intern named Paribaha Mukherjee sustained a serious skull injury in a ‘mob’ attack that ensued. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s threat to promulgate the stringent Essential Services Maintenance Act and words like "political conspiracy" were not well received and the protests intensified. Describing Banerjee as a guardian and a mother, renowned actor-filmmaker Aparna Sen appealed to her to "change her stance a bit" and take a more humane view of the threats faced by doctors. The Supreme Court has, meanwhile, agreed to hear a PIL on the safety and security of doctors in government hospitals across the country. Hearing a similar case, the Calcutta High Court asked the West Bengal government to end the impasse and respond to the petition in seven days.
Governor rebuffed
West Bengal Governor KN Tripathi on Friday said that he has called Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and is yet to get a response from her over the ongoing protests by the doctors in the state. Tripathi said, "Till this moment, there is no response from her. If she calls on me, then we will discuss the matter. I have called her, let her come." Governor Tripathi also visited the injured NRS medical junior doctor Paribaha Mukherjee. She is one of the two junior doctors attacked by relatives of a patient, who died at the NRS Medical College and Hospital on Monday night, triggering the ongoing agitation by medicos across the state.
If in Bengal, speak Bangla
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday fired a fresh salvo at "outsiders" saying those who are living in Bengal will have to learn to speak in Bengali.
"We have to bring 'Bangla' forward. When I go to Bihar, UP, Punjab, I speak in their language, if you stay in Bengal you have to learn to speak Bangla. After that you speak in Hindi or English, I do not care. But one should also learn Bengali," Banerjee said at a public rally in North 24 Parganas district's Kanchrapara, inhabited by a large number of Hindi-speaking people.
"Staying in Bengal and intimidating Bengalis by roaming around on bikes and resorting to hooliganism, will not be tolerated. I want to know why the houses of the minority community, Bengalis, are under attack. If you think that you will live in peace while torturing and intimidating our Bengali brothers and sisters, you are mistaken. People will not spare you," she warned.
Make Jai Shri Ram chant basic right: PIL
A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Calcutta High Court seeking a declaration that the chanting of Jai Shri Ram be declared a fundamental right. The matter came up on Friday before a 3-judge Bench headed Chief Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan. The Bench, however, adjourned the case. In the petition, advocate Partha Ghosh has sought court’s intervention on alleged prevention of chanting "Jai Shri Ram" in West Bengal. The petitioner also wants stalling of penal action against those who are chanting the same. to take recourse to appropriate legal remedies. The issue has become a contentious one in West Bengal, after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee objected to certain persons shouting Jai Shri Ram when her motorcade was passing through the Bhatpara area of North 24 Parganas district. Refusing immediate intervention, the division bench adjourned the hearing for four weeks.
