Doctors bridge divide, keep fight above politics Solidarity welcome but no interference please, politicians told

Mita Mukherjee and Subhajoy Roy, TT, 14.06.19, Calcutta: The BJP wanted to make it a tussle between communities; Trinamul tried to make it a fight between doctors and patients; but the doctors have managed to keep their agitation above politics.

Many of these doctors have been activists of the students’ wings of the Trinamul, Left and other parties, but after Monday night’s attack at NRS hospital, the junior doctors and students have bridged their political divide.

They said any attempt to drag them into politics would be resisted.

“This is a case where doctors are under attack. It is not the time to fight amongst ourselves but to remain united,” said a doctor.

The movement by the junior doctors started after Monday night’s attack on them and on Tuesday leaders of the BJP, Trinamul and even the CPM had made visits to the hospitals or expressed solidarity with the movement over the phone, said a protester at the NRS Medical College and Hospital on Thursday.

Several former Trinamul Chhatra Parishad-run union members of the NRS students’ union have also expressed solidarity.

“If my party (Trinamul) fails us, I cannot blindly support my party. The chief minister’s reaction was wrong,” said a doctor.

“We appreciated the parties for supporting our movement, but we have made it clear to them that our fight was against the government for some specific demands. We don’t want to give any political colour to the agitation. And we also do not want to communalise Monday night’s attack on us,” he said.

BJP leader Mukul Roy, along with party MP Locket Chatterjee, visited NRS hospital on Tuesday and later said that “people of a particular community had carried out the attack”.

Santanu Sen, Trinamul MP and national president of the Indian Medical Association, visited NRS hospital on Tuesday evening and requested doctors to withdraw their ceasework. A few other Trinamul leaders, too, have spoken to the agitators and insisted that the movement be withdrawn.

When two BJP leaders visited NRS hospital on Thursday, the doctors did not “entertain them”, said a final-year student of the NRS Medical College and Hospital.

A doctor at Calcutta Medical College and Hospital said a caller claiming to be from the RSS reached out to them on Thursday. “We thanked the caller, but refused to accept any assistance from the organisation,” the doctor said.

Senior doctors belonging to the doctors’ cell of the CPM have been visiting hospitals in Calcutta, in the districts and even in the sub-divisions since Tuesday, a junior doctor said.

“We interacted with them till they inquired about our movement as doctors and the problems we are facing in the profession. Our movement is against the government, but we are firm in our stand not to entertain any remark against any political party,” the doctor said.

A junior doctor said that the BJP had tried to play interlocutor between the agitators and the Centre. But the offer was turned down immediately, he said.