The ongoing protest by doctors in West Bengal escalated on Wednesday, with more senior doctors from government medical institutions resigning in mass in support of junior doctors. These junior doctors are protesting the brutal rape and murder of a colleague at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, demanding justice. A meeting between the state government and the protesting junior doctors late Wednesday night ended without a resolution.
On Wednesday evening, Chief Secretary Manoj Pant invited a group of junior doctors to discuss their demands with the state’s task force at Swasthya Bhavan. The meeting, which was supposed to start at 7:45 PM, eventually began at 9:45 PM. A delegation of 29 junior doctors attended, along with the state’s home secretary, the director general of police, and members of the newly formed state-level grievance redressal committee. However, the discussions failed to bring any breakthrough.
Debasish Halder, a junior doctor, expressed frustration after the meeting: “Except for some verbal assurances, we got nothing from this meeting. We requested the government to issue some directives or at least give us a timeline as to when our demands will be met. They declined. The government only wanted us to withdraw the hunger strike.”
On Tuesday, around 50 senior doctors from RG Kar hospital resigned as a show of solidarity with the protesting junior doctors. The mass resignation did not disrupt healthcare services, but it was intended as a symbolic gesture. By Wednesday night, a total of 106 doctors from RG Kar hospital had resigned. Senior doctors from other institutions also joined in, including 19 from Jalpaiguri Medical College, 42 from North Bengal Medical College, and 70 from Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata.
A collective resignation letter from senior faculty at Kolkata Medical College read: “We are rendering mass resignation in protest of the insensitive attitude towards the justified democratic movement and deteriorating health conditions of the protesting doctors on an indefinite hunger strike.”
The junior doctors, who have been on a hunger strike since Saturday, have been organizing rallies around Kolkata’s Durga Puja pandals to raise awareness about their cause. Their main demands include justice for their colleague, improved hospital security, and infrastructure upgrades in government hospitals.
Protesters were detained by city police during a rally near Bentinck Street, but they continued to voice their concerns through slogans and public demonstrations.
West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose visited the protesting junior doctors in Esplanade, Kolkata, on Wednesday evening to check on their health condition. Seven junior doctors, who have been fasting for the last four days, spoke to the Governor about their demands for justice.
The protesting doctors have put forward a list of 10 demands, which include justice for the victim, removal of the state health secretary, and police deployment at hospitals. They also want investigations into the alleged corruption and “threat culture” within the state medical council. In addition, doctors’ associations plan to march to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office in Salt Lake to apply pressure on the ongoing probe into the rape and murder case.
The CBI has already filed a charge sheet, naming civic volunteer Sanjay Roy as the main accused in the rape and murder of the junior doctor. However, the charge sheet did not find evidence of gangrape, leading to disappointment among the protesters. “CBI’s charge sheet is frustrating and laughable. After probing for 58 days, they found Sanjay Roy, an arrested civic volunteer, as the only accused. This is CBI’s failure,” said Dr. Biplab Chandra, a physician.
The doctors’ agitation is set to continue, with both junior and senior medical professionals determined to pursue their demands for better security and justice for their murdered colleague. The CBI has assured them that the investigation is still ongoing.
