KOLKATA: Observers say that Mamata Banerjee, for the first time in her career, is facing an opponent whom she cannot vilify or blame politically.
In a surprise move on Saturday, to end the impasse between her government and protesting doctors, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited the site where the medicos are staging a sit-in and addressed them. She said she had come as a Didi, not as Chief Minister. The doctors have been on protest strike since a trainee doctor was raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata last month and began a sit-in on Tuesday outside Swasthya Bhavan, the headquarters of the West Bengal Health Department. There have been moves for a discussion between the state government and the doctors since then but they have been getting stalled, most recently over the protestors’ demand for live streaming of the talks. In a dramatic standoff at the West Bengal state Secretariat Nabanna on Thursday (September 12), striking resident doctors from state-run hospitals arrived for talks with Mamata Banerjee but then refused to enter the auditorium as the government would not allow them to livestream the meeting.
They have demanded the suspension of top Health Department officials and police officials who were involved in “evidence tampering” and who tried to deliberately suppress the incident of rape and murder of the junior doctor. The junior doctors demanded an end to “threat culture” practised by the ruling party in every medical college.
On Saturday, Banerjee struck a conciliatory tone, asking if she could address the doctors. Amid slogan-shouting she said in Bengali, “Please listen to me for five minutes and then shout slogans, it is your democratic right to do so. I have been waiting for a long time. Against the advice of my security officers, I have come here to salute your protests. I have also been part of student movements, I know my post is not a big deal, your voice is. It was raining all night and you suffered. I couldn’t sleep either because I was feeling bad.”
Acknowledging that the protests had been going on for over a month, she urged the protesting doctors to return to work, assuring them that the government would lend a sympathetic ear to their demands.
“I will study the demands, I don’t run the government alone. I will speak to the Chief Secretary, Home Secretary and Director-General of Police. Action will be taken against those who are found guilty. I want justice for Tilottama (the name given to the woman who was raped and murdered). From your platform, I will request the CBI to speed up the investigation. I request you, I need some time to consider your demands. If you trust me, come and talk to me, I will look into your demands,” she assured the doctors.
Urging the protesters to return to work, she said their families were worried about them and many patients had died because they did not get proper healthcare.
“Return to work. I will ensure that no injustice happens. I will set up committees in every hospital which will have senior and junior doctors as members. Everyone found guilty will be punished, it is not like they are my friends (referring to the demand for the resignation of some officials). Please talk amongst yourselves and return to work, I will not take any action. In Uttar Pradesh, action was taken, I won’t do that. I know you work a lot, I know how important you are,” she said.
“This is my last attempt to resolve the crisis… If you keep your faith in me, I will look into your complaints. The case is on in the Supreme Court (which had set a September 10 deadline for the doctors to return to work) and the next hearing is on Tuesday. I don’t want you to suffer. I have come to make a request as your Didi, not as a Chief Minister. I am empathetic and I support your protest… I had also gone on a hunger strike for 26 days (during the protest against the acquisition of farmland in Singur), but no one from the then government came to speak to me,” Banerjee added.
However, the striking doctors have stuck to their guns, saying that the demand for live-streaming discussions was a necessary condition for talks to be held in a transparent manner.
“We are unable to believe anything that this government says. So, we want the entire world to be part of the discussions through the live-streaming. For all we know, Mamata Banerjee’s outreach today may be just to provide ammunition for Kapil Sibal to paint us in bad light in the Supreme Court during the hearing on September 17,” a doctor who was part of the 32-strong delegation that went to Nabanna for the abortive talks, told The Sunday Guardian.
MAMATA TIED HERSELF UP IN KNOTS
From the time the body of the 31-year-old trainee doctor was found at a seminar room of RG Kar, Mamata Banerjee has tied herself up in knots as her government and the police stand accused of allegedly covering up the horrific rape and murder.
A series of mis-steps by Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister who also wears the hats of the Health Minister and Home Minister, has seen her credibility shattered with protesters pointing out the barely legal steps repeatedly taken by her officials and senior police officials.
Revelations of the Mamata government’s laxity, if not direct involvement of its party cadres in various wrong-doings in the health sector, the alleged police cover-up of the murder have all contributed to the impression that the Trinamool Congress government and party under Mamata Banerjee have a lot to hide and give answers for.
The crisis of confidence is so acute that when striking junior doctors marched to the city police headquarters, they carried with them a model of a spine to present to the police commissioner. It was to highlight the spinelessness of the police, say protesters.
Observers say that Mamata Banerjee, for the first time in her career, is facing an opponent whom she cannot vilify or blame politically. After all, the striking junior doctors have taken great pains to keep political personalities away from them.
The striking doctors allege the Mamata Banerjee government, through its counsel, Kapil Sibal, tried to break their resolve by furnishing false and concocted information to the Supreme Court. Only by submitting such information, Sibal managed to get a direction from the Bench asking junior doctors to re-join work.
The unravelling of Mamata Banerjee and her administration’s credibility started since August 9 when the body of the victim was found.
Though records show that the FIR was filed at 10:45 pm, almost 14 hours after the discovery of the body, the presence of Vineet Goyal, the Police Commissioner, and his deputy at the site of the murder by 11am, raised questions. Instead of cordoning off the seminar room to preserve evidence, the police allowed entry to everybody. This included people close to Sandip Ghosh, the RG Kar principal, who is widely seen as a Mamata favourite and also heads the “mafia” that has its fingers into all the illegalities that are coming out now. Two days later, on Ghosh’s instructions, a room opposite to the seminar room was suddenly broken down and a wash basin and wall tiles destroyed. CBI sleuths say that vital clues may have been destroyed since it was now no longer possible to find blood traces from the basin.
For years, Akhtar Ali, a Health Department official who had been complaining about the various illegal goings on at RG Kar. He submitted documentary proof to the Health Department, against Ghosh, the state Anti-Corruption Bureau and even to the Chief Minister’s Office. While no action was taken against Ghosh, whistle-blower Ali was transferred to another medical college 250 km away. The connivance of the state was further exposed when the CBI recovered Ali’s original complaint from Sandip Ghosh’s house.
HUSHING UP, DIVERTING?
Student protesters say the police went out of its way to hush up the crime and destroy evidence. The unseemly haste to destroy evidence and dispose of the victim’s body led to the post mortem being conducted after sundown, which is impermissible under law.
On its part, the Kolkata Police did its own investigations and within 24 hours, arrested Sanjoy Roy, a civic volunteer, and accused him of the crime. Doctors however say that the kind of injuries that the victim’s body had, could not have been inflicted by a single person.
The Supreme Court, in its hearing on September 9, asked the state of West Bengal to produce the challan which was sent along with the dead body for post-mortem. The challan would have entries regarding the articles and materials sent along with the body for autopsy, the Court noted.
The Bengal government failed to produce it.
Advocate Phiroze Edulji, who appeared for the CBI, stated that there were several discrepancies in the records and lacunae in the investigation. He raised the following points: (1) The Post-Mortem was conducted after 6 PM, which is contrary to the rules and procedure. (2) The seizure was effected from the crime scene before the FIR was registered at 11.30 PM. This is not legally sustainable. The forensic team can visit the place only after the registration of the FIR as per the new criminal code (BNSS). This means that the investigation has been severely compromised. (3) The vaginal swab was not preserved properly at 4 degree Celsius. (4) The clothes of the victim were not sent along with the body for the post-mortem.
Stunned by the scale and vehemence of the protests sweeping across the state, the Mamata Banerjee government attempted to contain the upsurge.
On September 3, in the state Assembly, it passed the Aparajita Women and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2024, which enhances punishment for rape, promises swift investigation, and even the death penalty.
However, the anger, which has swept the state like a storm, has not subsided.
Shocked by the intensity of the protests, Mamata Banerjee attempted a counter.
In a bid to talk up the spirits of her party members, Mamata Banerjee chose the platform of her party’s student wing on August 28. However, she ended up causing more damage with her intemperate remarks.
Advising the junior doctors who are on strike across the state to rejoin work, Mamata Banerjee said: “Junior doctors’ future will be ruined if FIR (First Information Report) is filed—they will not get any chance, they will not get a passport, visa. But I do not want to ruin their lives.”
This was construed as a threat by a section of doctors who vowed to continue with suspension of work, and protests.
Targetting those who are blaming her party for the ills of the state, Mamata Banerjee also said that she felt it was time her earlier slogan, “Badla noi, badal chai (I want change, not revenge)” be abandoned.
“I never wanted revenge. But now I say, you will understand well what needs to be done. I don’t want trouble. Today, you will understand what needs to be done. But the ugly, slanderous one that bites you every day, you don’t bite him but you can hiss,” she added, much to the delight of her party’s members who are feeling the heat in their areas.
“You need not bite anybody, but at least you can hiss,” she said, referring to a parable attributed to Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa.
Trinamool Congress leaders including MPs and MLAs have walked the talk by issuing threats and making derogatory remarks about protesters, as well as physically attacking them, as it happened in Naihati, on September 8, Sunday. The protest march there was attacked by some miscreants who created a ruckus and eventually beat up the protesters. They didn’t even spare the women and molested them. Later, details emerged that it was a pre-planned move of local Trinamool leaders.
Meanwhile, Trinamool leadership claimed that they have come to know about a plot to attack the junior doctors, who are sitting on protest, by the Left and ultra-Left organizations, to malign the ruling Trinamool Congress. Sharing an audio, Trinamool Leader Kunal Ghosh claimed: “People are sitting like vultures to attack the doctors and injure the junior doctors and blame the state government after the meeting with the Chief Minister failed yesterday. It is a big conspiracy.”
ROCK BOTTOM
Mamata Banerjee created yet another controversy with another intemperate comment.
At a press conference, the Chief Minister said: “One month has elapsed since the murder. The Durga Puja is just 30 days away, I request everybody to return to the festivities.” Mamata said, sparking resentment among citizens.
The mother of the murdered doctor reacted, saying: “Would the Chief Minister have said the same thing, if someone in her family had been killed in such a manner?”
The mother of the murdered doctor also contradicted the Chief Minister’s claim that no money was offered to the victim’s family. She asserted that Mamata Banerjee herself offered money to the family, as did the DC (North).
“Mamata’s credibility has hit rock-bottom, and Mamata being a savvy politician, has understood that. I have no doubt that she might sacrifice one or two of her satraps to win over people. But I doubt if people will buy that. Even the most die-hard Trinamool supporter knows that Mamata has created a Frankenstein’s monster in the state through corruption and mismanagement,” said veteran journalist Suman Chattopadhyay.