One more schism in RG Kar stir as another doctor body enters protest pitch in Kolkata

KOLKATA: A day after a new platform of junior doctors — the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Association — was introduced, another schism in the R G Kar protest by the medical fraternity came to the fore on Sunday. This was highlighted by the Tilottama Trust, made up of 14 doctors.

The trust organised a march from College Square to Esplanade on Sunday afternoon, raising their voices against the “politicisation of an apolitical protest that demands justice for Abhaya”. Over 100 senior doctors and other people participated in the rally.

Madhusudan Pal, a retired professor of Medical College Hospital who participated in the protest, said, “All of us want justice for Abhaya. We are all waiting for this.”

Biman Bihari Das, president of the trust, said, “There was an attempt to link our trust with the newly formed WBJDA, and we condemn this. We will continue to lend our support to the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front (WBJDF). Since the WBJDF representatives, not even in a single instance, demanded the resignation of the health minister, we are laying down our demands separately.”

However, both WBJDF and WBJDA members claimed that the trust owes allegiance to BJP. Ankush Ghosh, a junior doctor of Calcutta National Medical College, said, “The doctors who formed Tilottama Trust are all backed by BJP.”

Meanwhile, BJP leaders Suvendu Adhikari and Sukanta Majumdar called WBJDA a Trinamool-sponsored association. Asked about this, Shrish Chakraborty, an intern of RG Kar Hospital and a representative of WBJDA, said, “This is a false allegation. We formed the association as an apolitical body as WBJDF, backed by Left, is deviating from the main demand for justice. We will call a convention soon.”

The WBJDA claimed that Ashfaqullah Naiya, a representative of WBJDF and a junior doctor of RG Kar, was general secretary of the TMCP unit at CNMC when Sandip Ghosh was its MSVP. Naiya, however, rubbished the claim and said, “I never had any link with the TMCP unit at CNMC. This is false propaganda against me.”

On Sunday, a non-medical group, ‘Raat Dokhol Koro, Din Bodol Koro’, organised a protest at Jadavpur by exhibiting women’s garments. Rimjhim Sinha, a member of the group, said, “Many people say that the garments worn by us often provoke crimes like rape. In our protest today, we want to highlight that dress is not any trigger behind harassment. Over two months have passed since the Abhaya incident, but no justice has come yet. Rather, more incidents of rape have happened.”