West Bengal’s junior doctors, on cease-work for over a month demanding justice for their raped and murdered colleague from RG Kar Hospital, as well as better security in their workplaces, have paid a heavy price for staunchly keeping their movement free of political colour.
Master politician Mamata Banerjee has outmanoeuvred them by several miles, leaving them stunned, dumbfounded, and looking somewhat foolish, while she emerged practically smelling of roses. In a press briefing Thursday, after the doctors refused to meet Mamata unless certain conditions were met, she took the moral high ground, even offering to resign as chief minister if that’s what it took to get the doctors back to work. She also refused to take punitive action against them and said she was ready to forgive them as she knew that some secretive political puppeteers were apparently manipulating the “youngsters” to try grab her chair.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that the junior doctors would have been able to out-think Mamata if they had joined hands with the Left, the BJP, or both of them. The two political parties have failed to dent Mamata Banerjee in any way, try as they might, even when she lobs them full tosses like the tragic RG Kar incident.
The Congress is out on the streets on this issue, but with Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra keeping mum after a routine tweet regretting the doctor’s death—obviously not wanting to upset Mamata with her 29 Lok Sabha MPs—the party seems to be sitting out the fight for West Bengal.
On a lighter note, there seems to be a market opening up for an IPAC-like consultancy—not to advise political parties but counsel ordinary citizens instead on how to take on muscular governments.
Also Read: What would you do in Mamata’s place? Not what she did at RG Kar, say Bengal’s people
Doctors defy, Mamata denies
So, what was the make-or-break issue that triggered the collapse of talks?
Mamata was waiting in the conference room with select bureaucrats to meet with the doctors—for almost two hours for the third day in a row, she said. Videos of that scene were streamed to the media—room full of white chairs and tables in a large circle on a carpet in the trademark blue, Mamata in a pristine white saree doodling at her desk, a few bureaucrats scuttling in and out of the hall.
Finally, escorted by a red-light-flashing police vehicle, a busload of doctors arrived at the gates of the conference room. Spirits and josh were high. Thirty-four of them came, defying the government diktat that only 15 doctors were allowed. Slogans of “We want Justice” rent the silence of officialese around Nabanna, Mamata’s office, and the resolution of their demands seemed moments away.
Then, the dash of cold water.
Thirty-four instead of 15 doctors? Fine, said the government. But live transmission of the talks? No.
The doctors argued there were precedents. The Supreme Court proceedings are being aired live these days. Mamata herself always beamed her administrative meetings in the districts live. And in June 2019, when junior doctors across the state struck work after one of them was assaulted by the kin of a patient at NRS Medical College Hospital, Mamata had invited them to talks after 7 days of cease-work. Thirty-one doctors had come and the entire meeting was televised live. So why not now?
Mamata, in a press statement—delivered live on TV—explained that live transmission of the dialogue was not possible because, unlike in 2019, the RG Kar case was in the Supreme Court and the probe was with the CBI. Her government, she said, was not willing to risk the talks offending the apex court or compromising the investigation.
Those who say aye to Mamata say she was perfectly logical. After all, she is a responsible chief minister who must be cognisant of the multiple ramifications of her government’s actions.
The naysayers disagreed, claiming the imbroglio over live transmission was engineered so Mamata didn’t have to confront questions by doctors to which she had no answers—questions that would expose gaping holes in the state’s healthcare infrastructure.
Mamata left the building after her press statement. Her parting shot: she was done with the doctors. Talk to my officers if you like, she told them before heading home, while the doctors, huddling outside the conference room and watching her TV statement on phones, were left twiddling their thumbs.
Also Read: Patriarchy spills out of Mamata’s solution to rapes—she’s advocating return to Middle Ages
What next?
The doctors are still evolving a strategy. The public support that their movement has drawn is a source of enormous strength. They need to retain that support and will have to tailor their agitation with that additional objective in mind.
Mamata has many irons in the fire. The Trinamool Congress has launched a social media campaign against the doctors’ movement, aiming it squarely at the party’s core vote bank. The narrative being pushed is that the doctors’ agitation is backed by the urban and suburban middle class, who don’t care very much for the rural poor, the ones most dependent on state-run hospitals and doctors.
The conversation is now shifting to rich versus poor, rural versus urban. Such divisions are dangerous.
The Chief Minister’s sharpest weapon, of course, is the Supreme Court, which will hear the case again on Tuesday, 17 September, immune to political machinations and skirmishes in the public space. The doctors have ignored its repeated orders to return to work. On Tuesday, the court may take a sterner view of the cease-work, which has gone on for well over a month now. Mamata’s legal team is sure to present the fact that her government tried to talk, but the doctors remained intransigent.
September 17 will not be the last hearing in the RG Kar case. Several investigations are still ongoing: the rape and murder of the doctor, for one, and the corruption in the health system that the incident has exposed. The last word is yet to be said. Round one, though, has gone decisively to Mamata. The doctors have an uphill fight ahead.
Monideepa Banerjie is a senior journalist based in Kolkata. She tweets @Monideepa62. Views are personal.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
Now you know why MSM journalists are not the best source for what is really happening on the ground.
Women’s safety is something I feel very strongly about. And unquestionably the state government faltered badly in its initial response to this terrible crime. Even so, difficult now not to see a big political agenda behind what is happening. Very selective approach towards equally horrific crimes being committed in real time in other parts of the world. The larger cause of women’s safety and dignity will suffer due to this effort to draw political gain. And, when the chips are down, CM Mamata Banerjee knows how to fight.
Round 1 goes to bootlickers (“choti chata” in Bengali) like Monideepa Banerjie.
Bootlickers like Ms. Banerjie will of course portray the recent developments as a win for Mamata Banerjee.
But truth remains that this ghastly incident has exposed cracks within TMC with senior leaders openly blaming each other for the debacle. Also, the pathetic state of affairs in Bengal has been exposed once again. The all pervasive corruption in every sphere of life lies bare for everyone to see.