Yet another protest to ‘reclaim the night’ swept across West Bengal to demand justice for the rape and murder of a doctor at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital (RGKMCH). On Wednesday (September 4, 2024) evening, protesters came out with candles, lamps and torches to demand justice, and better safety for women.
The September 4 protests were organised almost two weeks after protestors ‘reclaimed streets’ across West Bengal on the eve of Independence Day at midnight.
On Tuesday (September 3, 2024), the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, which has helmed the protests since the horrific rape and murder at RGKMCH on August 9, requested citizens to turn off all lights between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., and take to the streets and form human chains on Wednesday night.
The call for this lights-out night-time protest by doctors, named ‘Let there be light, let there be justice’, came hours before the Supreme Court was scheduled to hear the case on Thursday. However, the hearing has now been postponed.
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“Three weeks have passed, still no progress in the investigation… Let’s come out on the streets with light, join hands in our call for justice, and create a human chain,” a statement by the protesting junior doctors read.
Civil society groups across the State also organised demonstrations at various places in and outside Kolkata on Wednesday night, in a State-wide outpouring of night-time protests reminiscent of the ‘Reclaim the night’ protest that had taken the State by storm on the midnight of August 15.
This follows an almost 24-hour-long demonstration by protesting doctors near the Kolkata Police headquarters between Monday and Tuesday, which ended with a meeting between a delegation of representatives of the former with Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal. In the meeting, protestors demanded his resignation and submitted a written list of demands to Mr. Goyal.
Trinamool Congress’s Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Ray took to social media and urged people to reclaim their right to live with dignity. “Reclaim the night - reclaim peoples’ fundamental right to live with human dignity as enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution of India,” Mr. Ray posted on social media platform X on Wednesday.
Earlier, the MP had made several social media posts in support of the protests demanding justice for the victim. Mr. Ray joined the protests on Wednesday evening, saying he would protest alone, if necessary. “How is it possible to stay quiet under such circumstances?” he asked.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Congress workers in Kolkata took out a rally from the Academy of Fine Arts to the office of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at the Nizam’s Palace, demanding a proper investigation into the young doctor’s rape and murder.
Protesting party supporters, led by senior Congress leader Santosh Pathak, blocked Kolkata’s Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Road during the rally, and burnt car tyres in protest.
The protestors also said they would continue their demonstrations beyond Wednesday if the investigating agency did not expedite its probe and apprehend all possible culprits involved in the case.
Meanwhile, Bengal-based doctors Suman Mukhopadhyay and Dipanjan Banerjee tendered their resignations from the West Bengal Medical Council on Wednesday. In their letters to the President of the council, the doctors said that the rape and murder of a doctor on duty in Kolkata had left the medical fraternity saddened and ashamed.
They mentioned the other suspects being investigated by the CBI, who are medical practitioners and members of the council, and demanded the suspension of their participation in all council-related activities. “Unfortunately, the names of some members of the West Bengal Medical Council have been drawn into this picture, leading to much turmoil amongst our colleagues,” Dr. Mukhopadhyay’s letter read.
Dr. Mukhopadhyay also demanded the suspension of the registration of Sandip Kumar Ghosh, former Principal of the RGKMCH, who was taken into police custody by the CBI on Tuesday over alleged corruption and financial irregularities at the institution.
Meanwhile, in a mass convention organised on Wednesday at Kolkata’s Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (also known as the SSKM Hospital), renowned doctor Abhijit Chowdhury said the nexus between government hospitals and private businesses had to be addressed in the wake of allegations of corruption at the RGKMCH. “Nowadays, I cannot even trust lab test results coming out of SSKM because of the dip in their quality control. This is a result of the heightened involvement of private businesses in medical services like radiology,” Dr. Chowdhury said.
During the pandemic, Dr. Chowdhury was part of the West Bengal government’s advisory board, determining protocols to handle COVID-19 cases in the State. “We cannot depend on the police to ensure the safety of doctors and healthcare workers in our hospitals. We need to come up with an alternative approach,” he said at the convention on Wednesday.
Published - September 04, 2024 04:16 pm IST
