Protesting Doctors Write To President, PM Seeking Intervention Amid Deadlock With Mamata Govt

Agitating doctors in West Bengal on Friday wrote to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking their intervention to end the impasse over the brutal rape and murder of a trainee doctor which took place at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital last month.

In a four-page letter written by the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, the doctors highlighted the issues they faced while working at the hospital, adding that there is a “dearth of infrastructure and facilities” to ensure the safety of doctors and other healthcare professionals.

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“We humbly place the issues before your esteemed excellency, as the head of state, so that our unfortunate colleague who has been the victim of the most despicable crime shall receive justice, and so that we, the healthcare professionals under the West Bengal Health department, may be able to discharge our duties to the public without fear and apprehension,” the letter read.

“The horrific nature of the crime, the alleged attempts to cover it up, and the ensuing climate of fear have awakened the nation, demanding an impartial investigation and a prompt, fair, and rational trial,” the doctors wrote in the letter.

“Your intervention in these trying times will act as a beacon of light to us all, showing us the way ahead out of the darkness that surrounds us,” it added.

Copies of the letter were also sent to Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar and Union Health Minister JP Nadda.

The development comes a day after West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that she was ready to resign “in the interest of the people”, a remark that came amid deadlock over talks to end a work boycott by protesting junior doctors.

“I don’t want the CM’s post,” Banerjee said in an address to the media. “Our government has faced a lot of insult…There is a colour [political colour in the protests]. People came out on the streets for justice. But I hope people are understanding that…they [her rivals] just want the chair. I am ready to resign in the interest of the people,” she had said.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court had asked the doctors to join work by 5pm on Tuesday, but both the Bengal government and the protesters drove a hard bargain on the conditions for the meeting that could have ended, or at least taken a step towards ending, the impasse. The two sides were engaged in a lengthy mail exchange; the doctors had put forth several demands including justice for the 31-year-old victim and end to what they called threat culture in Bengal’s medical system, among others.

The chief minister and her party said the campaign by junior doctors are turning fatal for patients that require emergency services, but the protesters asserted that senior doctors are on duty and health care services are unaffected by their demand for justice.

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The TMC government is facing large-scale protests over the brutal rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9. Junior doctors have been on ‘cease work’ since then.

The RG Kar incident has jolted the nation, brought the functioning of the hospital under the scanner, led to the ouster of its controversial principal, prompted a scrutiny of the case by the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court, spawned allegations of cover-up and a larger conspiracy, led to the passing of a stringent anti-rape bill in the Bengal assembly, and sparked a bitter political war of words.