The deadlock between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and junior doctors protesting the rape and murder of a colleague at Kolkata’s RG Kar Hospital last month persisted on Thursday evening. A delegation of 32 doctors camped outside the state secretariat, refusing to enter and meet with the Chief Minister.
“We have been waiting for two hours to meet our brothers and sisters among the doctors. We had written to them, and they said they would come… that is why we made these arrangements. The Chief Secretary, the Director-General of Police, and the Home Secretary were all here,” Mamata Banerjee said. “I have waited for two days for them to come… but we respect their sentiment and forgive them.”
Visuals released by the state showed Banerjee sitting in a near-empty auditorium, with striking blue mats on the floor, and rows of chairs and tables set in a semi-circle before her, awaiting the doctors’ delegation.
The standoff centers on the doctors’ demand to live-stream the meeting, a request the state government has refused. Chief Secretary Manoj Pant explained that the state had accepted two other demands: that Banerjee be present and that all 32 doctors be allowed to attend, exceeding the earlier limit of 15.
“We allowed all 32 doctors to attend the meeting. However, their demand for live-streaming was declined. We said we would record it instead,” Pant said. Following this refusal, the doctors declared they would not attend the meeting unless all their preconditions were met.
Banerjee had been waiting since 5 p.m., 90 minutes after the scheduled start. “They have not entered the meeting hall yet… we request them to enter,” Pant added.
Bengal’s Director-General of Police Rajeev Kumar supported the state’s stance, calling the live-streaming demand “unreasonable.” “No formal meeting is ever live-streamed,” Kumar said, adding that there was no issue with the number of attendees.
This was the third invitation extended to the doctors this week to resolve the strike, which has entered its 34th day. Previous meetings were rejected due to demands for the resignation of Health Secretary Narayan Swaroop and refusal to limit the delegation size or live-stream the meeting.
Pant stressed that the state remained open to dialogue but reiterated that live-streaming would not be permitted. He assured the doctors that the meeting could be recorded to ensure accurate documentation of all discussions.
The junior doctors have been staging a sit-in protest outside the state’s Health Department headquarters, while their senior colleagues have returned to work following a Supreme Court plea. The doctors have criticized the state for not addressing their concerns.
Their demands include accountability for those responsible for the rape and murder of their colleague, action against Dr. Sandip Ghosh, the former RG Kar Hospital head arrested by the CBI, and the dismissal of Kolkata Police Chief Vineet Goyal and Health Secretary Narayan Swaroop.
They also called for increased security for healthcare workers and an end to the “threat culture” they allege is pervasive in state-run hospitals. Pant, in a letter to the doctors, reminded them that they had overrun the Supreme Court’s deadline to return to work, noting that adhering to court directions was everyone’s duty as law-abiding citizens.
The Supreme Court, which had taken suo motu cognizance of the RG Kar case, left it to the Bengal government to handle the junior doctors’ strike. Banerjee, however, has so far refrained from taking action, likely due to the political ramifications such a move could ignite.
