Governor asks doctors to end strike, parties to stop post-poll violence

KOLKATA: Agitating doctors and warring political parties converged on the Raj Bhavan on Thursday, and Bengal governor Keshari Nath Tripathi had an appeal for each of them. To the doctors, who have ceased work in protest against the brutal attack on junior doctors at NRS, he said they must resume duties in the interest of patients. To political parties, he said violence must be stopped at any cost, otherwise Bengal loses.
The doctors said they would join duty only if their demands are met. The political parties — Trinamool, BJP, Congress and CPM — agreed that violence must end, only disagreeing as to who was responsible.
Ahead of Tripathi’s meeting with the four parties, representatives of the Joint Platform of Doctors and the Doctors’ Association, affiliated to the ABVP, called on him, seeking his intervention into their basic demands: adequate security and protection for on-duty doctors and proper punishment for those who had attacked the on-duty doctors at NRS. Tripathi asked the doctors to re-join work and forwarded the memorandum to the state government.
Later, he was successful in making the four parties arrive at a consensus, at least on paper, that violence must stop. This consensus will be put to the test on hospital campuses on Friday, and when CM Mamata Banerjee reaches out to Bijpur, under the Barrackpore LS constituency.
The political representatives spoke as one that violence should be stopped, but they parted ways over who was responsible for the unabated post-poll violence.
At the end of the meeting, the governor jotted down five points for the record that were enough to send out the message that things are not in order in the state, even as the chief minister has blamed BJP’s “communal stance” for the trouble at the NRS campus on Thursday.
Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee walked a tightrope, trying to yoke Raj Bhavan’s stance with that of the state government. He also huddled into a one-on-one dialogue with the governor within the meeting that continued for one and a half hours, possibly to brief him about the state government’s views. Tripathi stretched to strike the golden mean that states democratic institutions, values and rights should be protected and there should be fair enforcement of law and order. This was one point of the five-point consensus over stopping violence, restoring peace and harmony.
Political parties, particularly the Trinamool and the BJP, had their own takeaways from the meeting, with BJP representative Jai Prakash Majumdar welcoming the Raj Bhavan initiative. CPM leader Md Salim and Pradesh Congress president Somen Mitra spoke in one voice over restoring peace. Trinamool leaders pointed to the portion of the governor’s message, where he appealed to political parties to adopt a “constructive approach for the state’s welfare.”