Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made an impassioned statement, standing up in front of young doctors who had been summoned to a meeting at the state secretariat today. She declared that she was prepared to leave down “in the interest of the people” and that she was not fond of being the state’s top position. She told the doctors that there would be no retaliation against them and that the administration is always open to communication. She became enraged with those who, she felt, had vested interests in organizing the protest.
She declared, “Our government has been insulted,” pointing to the abundance of anti-government posts on social media. The general public is unaware that it has a political hue.”She claimed that those in support of the political color “do not want justice.” They’re want the chair.”I am prepared to resign in the best interests of the people.
The position of Chief Minister is not something I seek. I want Tilottama to get justice. After two hours of waiting for the delegation of junior doctors, the Chief Minister declared at a press conference, “And I want common people to get medical treatment.” The group of doctors had arrived at the secretariat gate in preparation for the conference, which was scheduled to start at 5:00 p.m. However, they declined to enter since one of their demands—that the proceedings be broadcast live—had been rejected by the administration.
The Chief Minister had stated that because the Supreme Court was hearing the case, the government was unable to permit live broadcast. All other demands, such as having 33 members instead of 15 and an additional member in the delegation that arrived, had been granted by the administration. Regarding the live broadcast, they had stated that while it was not possible, the events will be captured on camera. However, that turned out to be the roadblock for a meeting that many had believed would break the deadlock and signal the return to normalcy.
The junior doctors who are protesting have held the government accountable for its intransigence in forbidding live broadcasting of the conference. They described the Chief Minister’s comments as “unfortunate” and stated, “We wanted the talks to happen.”The state administration, however, was emphatic that the meeting could not be streamed live. We have good reason to demand this. We desired live streaming for the meeting’s transparency,” the news agency Press Trust of India cited an unidentified physician as saying.
The doctors, according to Ms. Banerjee, were merely following orders. “Many of the delegation members, as far as I know, were eager to speak. However, out of the three, two were giving directions. Everything is with us. That was evident to us because the press, who were positioned directly behind, was filming it. They were telling us, ‘Don’t attend to the meeting, don’t negotiate,’ Ms. Banerjee said.
