3 days Ago By Sumati Yengkhom
Kolkata: A nudge from senior doctors to sit at the negotiations table with the state; a self-realisation that the ceasework cannot continue indefinitely and senior doctors have been struggling to keep health services running for over a month and the Supreme Court hearing scheduled on Tuesday — in which well-wishers pointed out that not responding to the state overtures would not portray them in favourable light in court — led to the Monday evening meeting at the CM’s residence in Kalighat. In doing so, the junior doctors relented to revising their call for first live-streaming and then video-recording to finally agree to the minutes of the meeting being recorded and signed by both sides. On Saturday, too, when the talks did not materialise at the CM's residence, the junior doctors had deliberated for three hours before agreeing to the handover of the minutes of the meetings but junior health minister Chandrima Bhattacharya had told them their decision had come too late.
The doctors had gone to Nabanna as well but talks did not happen as they had stuck to the live-streaming demand that the govt had rejected. “We are ready to go to the talks without live-streaming, a condition we had sacrificed on Saturday night itself. We have deliberated and come to the agreement that ‘live-streaming’ will no longer be a pre-condition as we want the talks to go ahead,” WBJDF representative Aniket Mahata told TOI on Monday before the fifth invite arrived from the chief secretary.
Members of the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front (WBJDF) core committee explained that their demand for live-streaming or video-recording of the meeting with the CM was a reflection of what the larger section of protesting doctors and the public wanted as they sought transparency and accountability. “This movement has become a mass movement. In addition to the medical fraternity, the public also wanted to see what transpired in the meeting.
But we do not want this pre-condition to be a stumbling block, and hence, agreed to relinquish it,” said another junior doctor. Senior doctors felt it was also to do with the trust deficit with the govt after what had happened, including the belief that there was a concerted attempt to cover up the PGT doctor's rape-murder and shield the guilty. Nevertheless, a section of senior doctors advised the junior doctors to accept Monday's invite for talks.
“We all know that the govt disallowing live-streaming on the pretext of the case being heard in court is not logical. But if the junior doctors had rejected the talks offer on the eve of the SC hearing, they might have been viewed as adamant,” said a senior doctor. A junior doctor also conceded that there were many who felt the need to return to work to help out their seniors.
“We want to go back to work and help them. Therefore, talks have become important to find a solution,” said another junior doctor..
