Doctors vs Mamata Banerjee over the Kolkata rape-murder case

A doctors’ body demand live streaming of the meeting with the CM of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee.

The protests against heinous crimes against women are ongoing, given August’s brutal rape and murder case of a trainee doctor of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. Doctors have been on the streets for protests. On Monday, the West Bengal government sent a fresh invitation to doctors for a meeting with the CM of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee; however, the doctors’ body demanded a live streaming of the meeting with her. The fresh invite says there will be ‘no further invitation.’

What did the doctors say about the proposed meeting with Mamata Banerjee?

On Monday, the doctors’ body said that the proposed meeting between them and the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, in Kolkata should be “transparent” amid an impasse over the doctors’ demand for the meeting to be live streamed. Additional General Secretary, All India Federation of Government Doctors Association (AIFGDA), Dr. Subarna Goswami, at a press conference in Delhi said, “The meeting should definitely take place but in a transparent ambience. The junior doctors should be taken into confidence so that they can voice their demands properly, and the government’s response must be documented either through videography or live streaming.”

“Our main demand is timely justice.”

Dr. Goswami added, “Our main demand is timely justice in the case. We want action against not only the rapist-killer but also against the people who tried to tamper with the evidence and misguided the investigation process. We also want action against a few doctors who have formed a syndicate.”

Junior doctors in West Bengal have been protesting against the rape-murder of a trainee doctor that happened on August 9 at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. The government, by Mamata Banerjee, has claimed there have been as many as 23 deaths due to the medical practitioners’ protests in the state and urged them to resume work. However, it has repeatedly refused the doctors’ live streaming demand, citing the sub-judice nature of the RG Kar case, leading to the stand-off.