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Kolkata: Doctors end sit-in near Lalbazar but say strike will continue
Hundreds of junior doctors had been holding a sit-in near Lal Bazar demanding the resignation of the Kolkata police commissioner over the alleged rape and murder incident at RG Kar
Hundreds of junior doctors, who held a sit-in for nearly 24 hours near Lal Bazar demanding the resignation of Kolkata police commissioner Vineet Kumar Goyal over the alleged rape and murder incident at RG Kar, ended the demonstration after the city police chief met a 22-member delegation of the agitators on Tuesday.
The doctors, however, said that the cease work, they have been holding since August 10 demanding justice for the victim, would continue.
“Our delegation met police commissioner Vineet Kumar Goyal. We submitted our representation to him demanding his resignation. We told him how police have failed to tackle the RG Kar case and that he should take moral responsibility and step down. He said that he has no intention to step down as of now but would do so if the higher-ups want. He, however, couldn’t provide any satisfactory answers to our queries and the points we raised,” Aniket Mahata, a protesting doctor told media persons after the meeting which lasted for nearly one-and-a-half hours.
On Monday, hundreds of junior doctors from various medical colleges organised a rally to Lal Bazar, headquarters of the Kolkata Police, in the afternoon demanding the resignation of Goyal. The doctors started a sit-in near Lalbazar when the rally was stopped by the police.
They demanded that either the police allow them to reach Lal Bazar where they would meet the police commissioner and demand his resignation, or the police chief come and meet them. The stalemate and protests continued overnight and spilled into Tuesday. Later a 22-member team was allowed to meet the commissioner.
Even though the police arranged a bus to transport them to Lalbazar, the doctors refused to board it and decided to walk up to Lalbazar which was just a few hundred metres away. The doctors also presented a replica of a human spine (vertebral column) to the commissioner.
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Meanwhile, a video surfaced on social media in which TMC leader Kunal Ghosh could be seen meeting four junior doctors in an office. It was also reported that the stalemate came to an end after the meeting.
“This is not true. Junior doctors, who held the sit-in have stood their ground since yesterday. Those who can be seen meeting him (Ghosh) aren’t any representatives of the West Bengal Junior Doctors Forum. We haven’t allowed any political leader to join our protest till date and we won’t allow it,” said a protesting doctor.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and former Calcutta high court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay faced ‘go back’ slogans when he went to the protest site on Monday night.
Meanwhile, a section of TMC leaders unleashed a torrent of hate speeches and abuses against protestors and opposition leaders who have been demanding the resignation of chief minister Mamata Banerjee over the RG Kar incident.
This came days after Banerjee, while addressing a rally of the TMC’s youth wing last week, said that she would leave it upon the party leaders and workers to decide as to how to deal with opposition parties.
Atish Sarkar, a TMC leader from Ashoknagar in North 24 Parganas threatened that his party would make obscene posters of mothers and sisters of those who were abusing the TMC supremo. The party, however, suspended him after a political row erupted.
BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala posted a video of TMC MLA Arundhati Maitra, widely known as Lovely Maitra, in which the latter purportedly referred to protesting doctors as butchers citing the impact of their strike on poor patients. In an earlier speech she had asked party workers to take revenge against those who were raising fingers at the TMC supremo.
In another video, north Bengal development minister Udayan Guha could be seen telling party workers: “If they bite you once you have to bite them five times. Only then this propaganda will stop and the attempt to disrupt the pace will stop.”
TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee had to intervene and ask party leaders to be more humble and more sympathetic.
“Public representatives across party lines need to be more HUMBLE and SYMPATHETIC. I urge everyone in @AITCofficial not to speak ill of anyone from the MEDICAL FRATERNITY OR CIVIL SOCIETY. Everyone has the right to protest and express themselves— This is what sets West Bengal apart from other BJP-ruled states,” he wrote on X.
