New Delhi/Kolkata, Aug 14 (PTI) The protest over the alleged rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata entered its third day on Wednesday disrupting healthcare services in several states across the country, even as a political slugfest erupted with the Congress and BJP alleging the West Bengal government has failed to protect women in the state.
Resident doctors at government hospitals in some states, including West Bengal and Delhi, continued their strike as various doctors’ bodies differed over calling off the strike.
The Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA) on Tuesday night called off its strike after meeting Union Health Minister J P Nadda. However, the medics at the central government-run AIIMS-Delhi, the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA), and other Resident Doctors’ Associations said that their stir would continue until a central law to curb attacks on medical personnel is implemented and a concrete solution found.
In West Bengal, long queues were seen at outpatient department (OPD) ticket counters in government hospitals, where senior doctors joined their junior colleagues in the protest.
Some private hospitals also kept their OPDs “closed” to express solidarity with the agitating junior doctors at state-run medical facilities.
“We have no new demands. It appears that attempts are being made to protect certain people… We see no reason to stop our protest,” an agitating doctor told PTI.
The West Bengal Joint Platform of Doctors called for a cease-work at OPDs across all government and private hospitals in the state. Junior and senior doctors, interns, and house staff wore black armbands and chanted slogans, demanding justice for the victim.
In the national capital, several hospitals, including the AIIMS and Safdarjung, continued their strike on Wednesday.
The Resident Doctors’ Associations of AIIMS, VMMC and Safdarjung Hospital, Ram Manohar Lohia, and Indira Gandhi Hospital continued the strike for a third day on the trot, shutting down OPDs, operation theatres, and wards.
In a statement, the FAIMA, after a meeting with Resident Doctor Associations from across states and institutes of national importance, said it will stand with its peers nationwide in denouncing the murder and continue its strike.
However, the FORDA called off its strike saying that the decision was taken in the interest of the welfare of patients.
The FORDA said, “A key outcome of the meeting was the health minister’s agreement to form a committee with FORDA’s involvement to work on the Central Protection Act. The ministry has assured that work on this will begin within the next 15 days.”
In Delhi, doctors at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital and Maulana Azad Medical College and associated hospitals have also called off their strike.
The political slugfest over the incident intensified, with Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said the “attempt to save the accused instead of providing justice to the victim raises serious questions on the hospital and the local administration”.
The entire country is shocked by the gruesome incident of rape and murder of the junior doctor in Kolkata, said the former Congress president, adding there is an atmosphere of insecurity among the doctors’ community and women with the revelations about the manner of the cruel and inhuman act against her.
“This incident has forced us to think that if doctors are not safe in a place like a medical college, then how can the parents send their daughters outside for studies? Why are even the strict laws made after the Nirbhaya case unsuccessful in preventing such crimes?” Gandhi said in a post on X in Hindi.
The BJP accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of siding with the accused instead of the victim in the case, and demanded her resignation.
BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia claimed that no woman in the state will feel safe if she continues as chief minister.
“You (Banerjee) did not perform your moral duty. You should immediately resign,” he told reporters, alleging that she tried to save the accused of the crime, which has shocked the nation.
He expressed confidence that the CBI will ensure a thorough probe and that the guilty are hanged.
The protests were also held in other parts of the country.
In Chandigarh, junior doctors at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) continued their strike for the third day.
Government doctors under the banner of Punjab Civil Medical Services Association (PCMSA) announced the suspension of OPD services at all public health centres in Punjab on August 16 in solidarity with the victim.
The strike and protests by doctors of several hospitals in Uttar Pradesh, including King George’s Medical University in Lucknow, entered the third day.
Junior doctors are not attending to services such as OPD, UP Resident Doctors Association (RDA) president Dr Hardeep Jogi told PTI.
In Rajasthan, medical services were partially affected in government hospitals in some parts of the state as the strike called by resident doctors entered its second day on Wednesday.
Jaipur Association of Resident Doctors (JARD) president Dr Manohar Siyol said emergency services are unaffected but non-essential services are suspended by the resident doctors.
Apart from Jaipur, resident doctors in other parts of the state, including Udaipur and Jodhpur, are also on strike, he said.
At AIIMS-Bhubaneswar, doctors remained off duty and staged protests over the incident.
In Jharkhand, junior doctors at the state-run Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in Ranchi continued their ‘pen down’ agitation for the second consecutive day to protest against the Kolkata incident.
In Chhattisgarh, nearly 1,500 junior doctors of hospitals attached to government medical colleges boycotted elective services and staged protests at their respective premises.
Resident doctors in Telangana also held protests, including boycotting OPD services. The junior doctors organised demonstrations and other forms of protests at Gandhi Medical College in Hyderabad and other places in the state, including Warangal, Adilabad and Nizamabad.
Earlier, a team of senior CBI officers, who reached Kolkata on Wednesday morning, began its investigation into the case, officials said.
The CBI team, which comprises medical and forensic experts, will visit the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital’s seminar hall where the body of the trainee doctor was found on August 9, they said.
Three groups of CBI officers have been formed to investigate the matter, a central agency official said.
The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday ordered the transfer of the probe from the Kolkata Police to the central agency.
Meanwhile, thousands of women from different walks of life are set to gather in different parts of West Bengal on Wednesday midnight, giving vent to the widespread anger against the brutal rape and murder of an on-duty doctor inside a Kolkata hospital last week.
Responding to the “Women, Reclaim the Night” call given on social media by commoners, college students, homemakers and employees of offices will congregate in key thoroughfares in small towns and big cities, including in various parts of Kolkata.
The body of the woman postgraduate trainee was found inside a seminar hall of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on the morning of August 9. A civic volunteer was arrested on Saturday in connection with the crime.
