Kolkata’s agitating doctors have agreed to meet West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee only if the latter agrees for the meeting to take place before the media. Doctors in the state have been on strike for the last six days in protest against an assault on one of their junior colleagues at a government hospital by a relative of a patient in Kolkata.
“We want immediate end to this impasse by discussion with the CM, which, to maintain transparency, shouldn’t be behind closed doors, but open to media under camera coverage,” NDTV quoted a doctor as saying.
This stand has prompted people to conclude that doctors’ agitation in Bengal was being orchestrated by the BJP, which is determined to uproot the Trinamool government of Bengal. Twitter user Rupa Gulab sought to highlight this aspect with her social media post as she wrote, “Doctors in Cal are now terribly upset that @MamataOfficial is climbing down. She invited them over for a chat, they refused to go. Strange. I would have rushed if I was that worried about my safety. I really would! What really is going on here?”
Doctors in Cal are now terribly upset that @MamataOfficial is climbing down. She invited them over for a chat, they refused to go. Strange. I would have rushed if I was that worried about my safety. I really would! What really is going on here?
— Rupa Gulab (@rupagulab) June 15, 2019
Another user Madhumita Mazumdar commented, “This has become a full- fledged Sanghi show with tacit support from the @PMOIndia . We know this game now. This #SaveBengal bullshit is just the beginning of more sinister shows. Sad that the junior docs have become ready pawns in this dirty politics. @MamataOfficial keep talking.”
This has become a full- fledged Sanghi show with tacit support from the @PMOIndia . We know this game now. This #SaveBengal bullshit is just the beginning of more sinister shows. Sad that the junior docs have become ready pawns in this dirty politics. @MamataOfficial keep talking
— Madhumita Mazumdar (@mmazumdar2014) June 15, 2019
What has enraged many netizens is the glaring hypocrisy of the Indian Medical Association, an umbrella body for the country’s doctors. The IMA has called for a nationwide strike on 17 June in support of those boycotting work in hospitals across Bengal.
Dr Kafeel Khan, who was arrested soon after being hailed as a hero for saving many children’s lives at the BRD Medical College and hospital in Gorakhpur in 2017, too has slammed the IMA. He wrote, “Dear @IMAIndiaOrg. I have been running from pillar to post for over 2 yrs now. In spite of high & supreme court order neither @myogiadityanath paying my dues nor revoking my suspension. Plz issue a statement for me too. I am also from your fraternity. I also have a family to feed.”
Dear @IMAIndiaOrg
I have been running from pillar to post for over 2 yrs now
Inspit of high & supreme court order neither @myogiadityanath paying my dues nor revoking my suspension
Plz issue a statement for me too.
I am also from your fraternity. I also have a family to feed? pic.twitter.com/A217RtyAhK— Dr kafeel khan (@drkafeelkhan) June 15, 2019
User Md Asif Khan posted a series of links of news stories highlighting how neither the governing body for doctors in India nor the country’s news channels had remained silent on atrocities committed by BJP functionaries against doctors in the past.
I dont support any kind of Mob Violence, Doctors deserve safety and protection.
But the way BJP leaders and Sanghi trolls have communalized Bengal doctor issue and AIMA went on strike, It is important to expose their hypocrisy. #DoctorsFightBack
THREAD ? Read it
1/n
— Md Asif Khan آصِف (@imMAK02) June 14, 2019
A news report by Medical Dialogue website reported in April this year that the BJP-ruled Tripura had witnessed as many as nine incidents of attacks on the state’s doctors but neither the medical fraternity raised its voice against those incidents nor did the BJP-led government take tangible action against the culprits.
More recently, earlier this month, a video of BJP MP Anath Kumar Hegde punching a doctor at a hospital in his home state Karnataka had gone viral. A report by news agency ANI had said that three doctors Dr Madhukeshwara Jeevi, Dr Balachandra and Dr Rahul Marshakar, were attacked by Hegde for not taking proper care of his mother after she was admitted to the hospital. Once again the IMA did not care to react or announce a nationwide strike against the BJP MP’s criminal action.