Didn't threaten protesting doctors, spoke up against BJP's bid to spread anarchy, Mamata clarifies

Kolkata: A day after drawing flak for intimidating the junior doctors protesting the rape and murder of a colleague, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday asserted that she had not threatened the agitating medics but spoken up against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s bid to trigger anarchy in the state.

“Let me most emphatically clarify that I have not uttered a single word against the medical students or their movements. I totally support their movement. Their movement is genuine. I never threatened them, as some people are accusing me of doing. This allegation is completely false,” the chief minister and the Trinamool Congress supremo wrote on X.

“I have spoken against (the) BJP. I have spoken against them (the BJP leaders) because, with the support of the Government of India, they are threatening the democracy in our state and trying to create anarchy,” she wrote, adding: “With support from the Centre, they are trying to create lawlessness and I have raised my voice against them.”

More than a fortnight passed since the junior doctors started the cease-work protest to demand justice for the 31-year-old postgraduate trainee medic who was raped and murdered at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. With nearly 6000 junior doctors in over 20 hospitals not working, the healthcare services across the state have been severely affected. The senior doctors, who had briefly joined the protest, returned to work later, but could hardly fill the void created by the continuing cease work stir by thousands of junior doctors.

Banerjee, while addressing a rally of the student wing of the Trinamool Congress on Wednesday, had said that the state government did not and would not take any actions against the protesting junior doctors. She had reiterated her appeal to them to return to work. She had noted that the Supreme Court had also appealed to the junior doctors to end their cease work stir. She had asked the protesting doctors to keep in mind that the Supreme Court had left it to the state government to decide on taking action against the protesting doctors. “The state government did not take action. If an FIR is filed against anyone, her or his career would be affected, as it would become difficult to obtain passports and visas,” she had said.

The protesting junior doctors, however, had responded to the chief minister’s appeal, stating that no attempt to tacitly intimidate them would succeed. They had said that they would not call off the stir because they believed that some of the perpetrators of the crime might be roaming freely and that was why they were not assured about their security.

Union minister and the BJP’s state unit chief, Sukanta Majumdar, had also accused her of threatening the protesting junior doctors. He had also promised to provide legal assistance to any of the agitating medics who would face any difficulty due to any action by the state government. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the president of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee, also criticised the chief minister for intimidating the protesting doctors.

Banerjee had on Wednesday called upon the TMC workers to stand up, resist, and protest if the opposition parties insulted them and their party.

She on Thursday reminded that she had quoted 19th-century saint Ramakrishna Paramahansa while urging the TMC workers not to take insults by the opposition parties lying down. “The legendary saint had said that occasionally there is a need to raise one's voice. When there are crimes and criminal offences, the voice of protest has to be raised. My speech on that point was a direct allusion to the great Ramakrishnite saying,” the TMC supremo posted on X.