West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said she was “ready to quit her chair” for the sake of justice, but hinted that the protests against the RG Kar rape and murder were aimed at toppling her government.
In a statement, Mamata Banerjee said her government was committed to holding talks with the doctors who are protesting against the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The doctors have continued their strike despite the Supreme Court directing to return to work by September 10 evening.
“I know most of the doctors were interested in the meeting. But we have come to know there were a handful who wanted to create a stalemate,” she said. Without elaborating, the Chief Minister hinted that the protests were politically motivated and were backed by the Left.
“I am even ready to quit for the sake of justice for the common people. But they don’t want justice. They just want the chair,” she said. The Chief Minister’s statement came as the standoff between the agitating doctors and the Trinamool Congress government continued, with no talks happening for the third straight day.
Mamata Banerjee claimed she waited for two hours at the state secretariat to meet the protesting doctors, but there was no response from them. The doctors reached the state secretariat but refused to meet the Chief Minister, demanding that the meeting should be live-streamed.
On this, Mamata Banerjee said her government was open to the demand for live telecast, but there were some legal bindings as the matter is in the court. “We had full system to record the meeting for transparency and accurate documentation of the process. We were even ready to share the recording with the Supreme Court’s nod,” she said.
With a case being sub-judice, we cannot discuss fine prints of the case like this. That is why we had facility to record the proceeding,” she added. “We were hopeful of an open dialogue in the interest of doctors and patients alike… We had asked for a delegation of 15 doctors but they came with 34 and yet we decided to hold a meeting. But yet they refused to enter the meeting venue,” she said.
The Chief Minister said that due to the doctors’ strike, 27 patients have died due to lack of medical services at government hospitals in the last one month. “An accident patient recently died at RG Kar hospital without treatment… What about his mother and family?” she asked.