Kolkata: After meeting with Mamata called off, TMC MPs call protesting doctors 'inhumane'

After the agitating doctors refused to meet Mamata when their demand to live stream the meeting was denied, TMC MPs are now lashing out at the doctors. They are criticising the protestors as 'inhumane' and 'unfit to be doctors', even as Mamata has offered to resign. Mamata has been alleging that the BJP and the Left parties are politicising the incident.

Meanwhile, the BJP slammed Mamata for 'snubbing' the doctors because she was scared of transparency. The delegation of doctors had even reached the gates of the state secretariat Nabanna to meet Mamata and government officials for a dialogue to settle their demands but the meeting failed to take place.

Dirty level of politicisation: TMC

A TMC Rajya Sabha MP posted a picture on X of Mamata seated alone in an empty conference hall of the secretariat ostensibly waiting for the agitating doctors to meet her.

TMC party spokesperson Saket Gokale wrote in the post that the CM had been waiting for the 'last couple of hours' to meet the junior doctors but they did not show up.

"No other leader has shown this level of commitment to dialogue with the protestors," he claimed and alleged that the protest has been hijacked by CPM and BJP. The goal is not for a resolution but to prolong the deadlock, he alleged.

Further, Gokale said junior doctors must realise that they are being used as 'pawns' by the BJP and CPM. “This dirty level of politicization is resulting in the suffering of lakhs of patients,” he said. The goalposts of the protestors are shifting every day, he pointed out as an example of their lack of commitment to end the impasse.

Meanwhile, another TMC MP Kalyan too lashed out at the protesting doctors calling them 'inhumane and unfit to become doctors'. He even urged the Bengal government to ensure that they are not allowed to appear for their final exams. He told PTI that those doctors, who are agitating for the last month, putting the lives of lakhs of patients at stake, do not deserve to be a doctor.

BJP attack

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) too dived into the controversy accusing Mamata of being the one to 'snub' the protesters and calling off the meeting.

According to BJP leader Amit Malviya, Mamata was scared of transparency and failed to agree to the demand to live stream the meeting. He claimed that she called off the meeting after the doctors’ delegation had travelled all the way to meet her at Nabanno.

Unwilling to live stream the proceedings, she then unilaterally called off the meeting, and targeted the junior doctors in a press conference and blamed them for patient deaths. He called her actions, “Disingenuous”.