Kolkata rape and murder case: Doctors continue protests, reject Bengal government call for talks

Kolkata doctor rape and murder case: Protesting resident doctors in West Bengal defy Supreme Court appeal and continue protests; decline Bengal government’s offer for talks.

Protesting resident doctors in West Bengal refused to budge despite an appeal by the Supreme Court to resume work by 5 p.m. on Tuesday.

The resident junior doctors from multiple government medical colleges took out a procession to Swasthya Bhawan and held protests after they were not allowed to enter the Health Department headquarters. While they continued their protests, officials from Nabanna (State Secretariat) appealed to them to hold talks and negotiate to end the month-long logjam.

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Trinamool MLA Chandrima Bhattacharya said, “The Principal Health Secretary sent an email from Nabanna to the protesting junior doctors at 6.10 p.m. We were ready to allow 10 or more of them to hold talks with us. However, we did not receive any response from them. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was waiting at Nabanna till 7.30 p.m. to hold talks with the doctors, but the doctors did not come.” 

Responding to the claims by government officials, the protesting doctors said, “We want to keep all channels for negotiations and talks open. But the way they wrote the email and the language they used was an insult to us. The way the email came to us, it was not an official email; it was a mail from the Health Secretary, we are not in any position to officially respond to it. If there is any positive response from the government to our five demands, we are ready to consider their appeal to hold talks.”

They added that they will continue with their peaceful sit-in protests in front of the Health Department headquarters. 

The five-point demands of the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front (WBJDF) include finding and punishing all possible culprits involved in the rape and murder as well as alleged tampering of evidence; disciplinary action against former R.G. Kar principal Sandip Kumar Ghosh; resignation of Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal; increased security for healthcare workers; and an end to the alleged ‘threat culture’ in hospitals and medical colleges across West Bengal.