Singed by R G Kar row, TMC looks to turn a corner; BJP, CPM play waiting game

The Mamata Banerjee government, ruling Bengal since 2011, has perhaps faced its toughest challenge over the last forty days as the junior doctors’ protests seeking justice for their victim colleague spread from the streets of Kolkata and many Bengal towns to different parts of the country. The agitation has been driven by the civil society which has not allowed it to be taken over by any political outfit.

The BJP and the CPM launched their respective campaigns over the issue to corner the TMC government, looking to mobilise people barely a few months after the Lok Sabha polls, in which the Left could not open its account while the BJP could win just 12 seats out of 42 as against the TMC’s 29 seats.

On its part, after struggling to deal with the fallout of the R G Kar outrage for weeks, the TMC now seems to be getting its act together, with its leaders and activists treading cautiously not to antagonise the civil society further.

On Monday, in a bid to make the first breakthrough, CM Mamata blinked in the face of the junior doctors’ unrelenting stir, agreeing to remove four of her senior police and health officials, including Kolkata police commissioner Vineet Goyal, as per their demand after holding talks with them at her residence.

Mamata’s top officials held a second round of meeting with the junior doctors on Wednesday to address their remaining demands. The meeting went into the night but remained inconclusive. Both sides are expected to hold further talks in a bid to reach an agreement.

It seemed to be a different Mamata under the harsh glare of the public eye last Thursday, when she waited for over two hours for the junior doctors to meet her at the state secretariat. This was in stark contrast to the CM who on August 28, at a rally to mark the foundation day of the TMC’s student wing, made a remark that was seen as a “threat” to file FIRs against the protesters.

After the junior doctors refused to meet her, Mamata also sounded apologetic and almost helpless, even saying she was ready to resign.

During the hearing on the R G Kar matter Tuesday, the Supreme Court took objection to the TMC government’s “Rattierer Saathi” programme, which prescribes night duty avoidance for women, including women doctors, and that their working hours should not exceed 12 hours at a time.

The apex court asked the TMC government to correct the notification, saying it is the government’s duty to provide security and that it cannot say that women cannot work at night.

The top court also questioned the Bengal government’s decision to hire contractual staff for the protection of doctors and other staff in the state-run hospitals, asking it to ensure security there with police force.

The next day, the TMC’s No. 2 and Mamata’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee asserted that he has “supported the doctors in their concerns regarding safety and security” since day one and that he has always maintained that most of their concerns are “valid, sensible and justified”. Underlining that the state government has taken various steps to improve their safety and security in light of the apex court’s directions besides meeting their demands, he also urged the doctors to call off their strike.

Both the BJP and the CPM, however, claim that their support bases have expanded as the R G Kar protesters, they say, have been rallying round them to take on the Mamata dispensation.

A senior CPM leader said, “You can see in the streets which slogans protesters have been raising – ‘Azadi’, ‘Halla Bol’, which are basically leftist slogans. They are singing ‘Bella ciao’ and ‘Ganasangeet’, which are also leftist songs. Naturally, people are connecting with us in this movement.”

On the other hand, a BJP leader said, “Left activists may be participating in the protests, but when the time to elect an alternative to the TMC comes, the people would choose us because we are the only robust and credible Opposition force in the state. So, even the Left supporters would then gravitate towards us in the fight against the TMC.”

Several observers claim that the BJP as well as the CPM have not been able to create a resonance amidst the outpouring of people’s anger and protests against the TMC government, with the civil society driving the movement.

However, insiders in both the BJP and the CPM say that it was their “tactical” move to let the civil society be the face of the stir and to back it from the sidelines in order to fuel public discontent against the Mamata regime. Both camps indicated that they would try to garner political dividends from it in due course.

TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said, “Our government is trying to meet the demands of junior doctors. We are saying from the first day that we are with their movement. We are also saying that they should stop the cease-work as many people are suffering due to their strike.”

Ghosh also said, “We are with the civil society movement because people are genuinely worried after this heinous crime. But CPM, BJP or Naxals are trying to take political advantage of this movement, which we oppose.”