Doctors write to Murmu, to continue ‘cease work’
NEW DELHI: Protesting junior doctors in West Bengal have sought intervention of President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, even as they distanced themselves from all parties and stuck to their demands on Friday, indicating that no immediate resolution was in the offing in deadlocked talks with the state government.
The doctors’ letter to Murmu – issued on Thursday morning but only made public on Friday – surfaced on a day the state government said 29 people had died due to disruption in health care services and announced an ex gratia of ₹2 lakh for their families.
“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,” the doctors wrote in their letter to Murmu. Copies of the letter were also sent to vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar, the Prime Minister’s Office and Union health minister JP Nadda.
The letter — which was sent hours before a delegation of junior doctors reached the state secretariat on Thursday evening for talks with chief minister Mamata Banerjee, but sat outside the auditorium for two hours because the government didn’t agree to their demand of livestreaming the negotiations — blamed the RG Kar Hospital authorities and state government officials.
“The head of the institute in question along with the state police and certain state government officials had allegedly mishandled the entire forensic and legal proceedings, with little regard for either the sanctity of the crime scene that was mobbed by several persons, or for the victim’s parents, coercing them into submission to fit a narrative that suited their interests,” it said.
It alleged that police remained mute spectators on August 15 when a mob ransacked the hospital even as doctors ran to find shelter. On August 28, Murmu had voiced her deep dismay and horror in her first public remarks on the brutal rape and murder.
Junior doctors across the state have been on strike since August 9 demanding justice for the junior doctor who was raped and murdered in RG Kar Hospital last month. The incident triggered a nationwide uproar.
They have five demands — justice for the doctor; action against all officials responsible for alleged tampering of the evidence; action against former RG Kar Hospital principal Sandip Ghosh; the resignation of Kolkata police commissioner Vineet Goyal; and the creation of a safe environment for doctors in West Bengal.
In its last hearing on the case, the Supreme Court has asked the doctors to return to work by 5pm on Tuesday. But the agitators defied the deadline, saying their demands hadn’t been met.
On Friday, the doctors clarified that they were not affiliated with any political party and said their letter was not issued in response to the stand-off with Banerjee on Thursday.
“This is a people’s protest. No one is an outsider here. Our fight is apolitical. We don’t want to comment on the statements made by a political leader,” a protesting doctor said.
Around the same time, the state government alleged that at least 29 people have died in the state as they didn’t get proper medical treatment due to the strike.