CPM Suggests Amit Shah's No-Show with Junior Doctor's Parents Indicates Secret Deal with TMC

The Left and the Congress wasted no time in accusing the BJP of extending secret support to the Mamata Banerjee-led dispensation, while the Trinamul Congress called Shah’s stand 'inhumane'

Amit Shah at a BJP programme in Calcutta on Sunday: The Telegraph

Meghdeep Bhattacharyya, Saibal Gupta, TT, Calcutta, 29.10.24 : The Bengal unit of the BJP yet again finds itself in a spot of bother after Amit Shah gave the RG Kar victim’s parents a miss, his mere passing mention of the tragedy in a speech and criticism by senior state leaders of the protesting doctors earlier on Sunday.

The Left and the Congress wasted no time in accusing the BJP of extending secret support to the Mamata Banerjee-led dispensation, while the Trinamool Congress called Shah’s stand “inhumane”.

While other BJP leaders fumbled for reasonably satisfactory explanations, state unit chief Sukanta Majumdar couldn’t find a fitting response, and said: “I have nothing to say on this.”

“Some parties are attempting to suggest that the Union home minister not meeting the parents is an effort to downplay the seriousness of the incident, but this narrative is incorrect,” said the BJP’s chief spokesperson for Bengal, Samik Bhattacharya.

“The BJP has consistently aimed to keep this movement apolitical, thereby honouring the sentiment of the protesting doctors… and Amit Shah’s action further reinforces that position,” he added, in complete contradiction to countless statements by his colleagues betraying the party’s desire to be included in the mainstream of the movement.

For instance, the BJP's foremost leader in Calcutta, Sajal Ghosh, has repeatedly urged the protesting medical fraternity — influential sections of which vowed to keep their movement saffron-free — to consider accepting the full-fledged support of the party. Ghosh and many other BJP leaders have also been repetitious in questioning the doctors’ decision against calling for the resignation of Mamata, in charge of health and home in the state.

In private, several BJP insiders admitted to the saffron camp’s undiminished discomfort with alienation from the mainstream of the pro-justice movement, adding that Shah’s decision not to meet the victim’s parents undermined the gravity of the incident, which could adversely impact the BJP electorally.

“We could have regained some of our lost ground (had Shah met them). Now this has given the Opposition the chance to say that the BJP is not sensitive to the state’s problems,” said a senior BJP leader.

“We remain unable to handle being so decisively excluded from the movement that could have yielded serious electoral gains for us,” he added. “There is a frustrating cluelessness over ways to get a foot in the door.”

According to him, comments critical of the protesting medical fraternity by the party’s leaders have only been queering the pitch further for the BJP.

Before Shah’s events, state unit chief Majumdar and leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Suvendu Adhikari issued public statements that were far from complimentary to the protesting doctors or their movement.

“Some Left and ultra-Left parties have misguided the doctors and they are responsible for the premature death of this movement,” Adhikari had said, underscoring the “insult” of go-back slogans to Tamluk BJP MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay and Asansol Dakshin BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul, when they went anywhere close to a demonstration by doctors.

“By doing this, they isolated themselves from the people and became pawns of certain political groups, for which they are now paying the price,” the Nandigram MLA had claimed. “The doctors need to understand that no anti-government movement can succeed without the active participation of voters, and that ignoring the BJP — the only Opposition party in the state with the support of 2.33 crore electors — would be a mistake.”

Labelling the protesting junior doctors as “South Africa-esque chokers” — a cricket stereotype, Majumdar had said they managed a good start, but couldn’t properly finish.

CPM central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said Shah’s approach, coupled with the attitude of the BJP’s state leadership, suggested a secret pact with Trinamool, accusing the Union home minister of effectively offering “silent support” to the chief minister.

The Congress’s chief spokesperson for Bengal, Soumya Aich Roy, said the CBI — which reports to Shah — was already showing signs of going into hibernation in its RG Kar probe.

“This is why no serious corruption allegation against Trinamool, investigated by a central agency, ever ends conclusively,” said Aich Roy.

“The BJP and Trinamool choose to remain in an unbreakable bond of a symbiotic relationship. Shah could not have faced the parents of the victim,” he added. “BJP’s leaders have been insulting the doctors and their movement in the same language and tone as those of Trinamool.”

Trinamool’s Kunal Ghosh said Shah didn’t want to open a Pandora’s box by meeting the victim’s parents.

“Imagine how much time he would then have to devote to meeting families of victims in heinous crimes against women, given the shocking frequency with which they take place in areas under the BJP’s control,” said Ghosh.

“That he couldn’t find 10 minutes for them… it’s inhumane,” he added.

Seeking to control the damage, the BJP is now planning a larger movement on RG Kar from after Kali Puja, after Shah urged the state unit to leverage public grievances against Trinamool, especially as the “apolitical” movement appears to be losing momentum.

A state BJP functionary said the movement would comprise signature collection, extensive on-ground activities, and demonstrations at Nabanna (the state secretariat), Lalbazar (Kolkata Police headquarters), and Kalighat (Mamata’s neighbourhood).

Adhikari, who said that the junior doctors’ meeting last week at Nabanna with Mamata defeated the purpose of the movement, said: “We have already completed the process of collecting 50 lakh signatures. Once we achieve 1 crore signatures from the people, we will submit them to the governor, demanding (Mamata’s) resignation.”