Doctors call off strike after meeting Didi

Agitating junior doctors on Monday evening withdrew their weeks-long hunger strike over the RG Kar incident, hours after a meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The medics also called off their proposed strike across hospitals in the state on Tuesday. “In today’s meeting (with the CM), we did get the assurance of some directives, but the body language of the state government was not positive... The common people have wholeheartedly supported us. They, as well as the parents of our deceased sister (RG Kar hospital victim), have been requesting us to call off the hunger strike, keeping in mind our deteriorating health.

“We are therefore withdrawing our ‘fast-unto-death' and also Tuesday's total shutdown in the health sector,” said Debashish Halder, one of the junior medics. The decision was taken following a general body meeting of the doctors.

The meeting between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and agitating junior doctors on Monday lasted nearly two hours, discussing various demands of the medics, including the prevailing “threat culture” in the state’s hospitals, to resolve the impasse stemming from the rape and murder of a doctor at RG Kar Hospital in August.

During the talks, held on the 17th day of a fast-unto-death by some protesting doctors, which was streamed Live for the first time from the state secretariat-Nabanna, Banerjee urged the junior doctors to end their fast, stating that most of their demands had been addressed, while rejecting the one on removing the state health secretary.

Referring to the demand for the removal of Health Secretary Nigam, the CM protested against labelling him as an accused of supporting the threat culture” without any concrete proof.

“You cannot call a person accused without any concrete proof. First, you have to provide evidence; then you can call a person accused,” she said, to which an agitating doctor responded, “A person can be called accused as per law until he or she is proven guilty.”

Following this, Aniket Mahato, an agitating doctor who had to be hospitalised after five days of fasting, countered Banerjee by saying those who were suspended “have been very much part of the threat culture and don’t deserve to be doctors.”

She acknowledged that some of the demands require policy decisions that “cannot be implemented overnight” and urged them to “rise above differences on a few demands” for the sake of the patients who depend on them for treatment.

The agitating doctors, joined by colleagues across the state, have threatened to escalate their protest by organising a strike of all medical professionals in West Bengal on October 22 if their demands are not met, with a mega rally planned for Sunday to further press their demands.

“We want all of you to remain fit and healthy and prosper in your lives. I am also a product of a mass movement. I am really disturbed that some of your colleagues are on a fast. I would request you all to withdraw the fast,” she said at the conclusion of the meeting that began at 5 pm and ended at 7.17 pm.