Sometimes, we have to pay the price for the faults that aren’t even ours. And yes that does sound absolutely unfair, but sometimes we have no control over the things that affect us. Our world is a huge place and we cannot control everything and everyone. We all have felt this, haven’t we? In various contexts, of course, but the feeling of utter helplessness is mutual. And something that makes this feeling worse is when you have the lives of the people you care about on the line.

I can’t be sure, but I imagine that’s how it would have felt to all those people who had been standing in long queues in front of the doctor’s cabins across the country, especially in West Bengal the past few days. Doctors are considered to have one of the noblest professions in the world and rightfully so, they do keep us alive longer, broadly speaking. But as emphasized time and again; doctors are not gods, just mere humans like the rest of us. There are things, events and occurrences that are even beyond the control of them. However hard to digest, it is true.

And if the relatives of the deceased patients can just comprehend this simple fact, a lot of time, efforts and other resources can be saved. Losing someone you care about is not easy, it is perhaps of the toughest things you have to go through in your entire life, trust me, I know. But going about assaulting the medical help is definitely not the way to go about it.

It all started last week in West Bengal in NRS Hospital. After the unfortunate death of a patient on Monday night, the relatives of the patient physically assaulted two junior doctors on the grounds of negligence. Both the doctors were seriously injured during the attack and were admitted to a state-run hospital. They are now said to be in a stable condition.

Who do you think is the victim here? The relatives who lost their family member or the doctors who got beaten up for doing their job?

The motion of events that transpired on Monday night became a snowball of other events. It began with doctors and students of NRS College and Hospital protesting against the assault on their peers and demanding action against the family members. As the news spread, other government and privately run medical institutions and hospitals also joined the cause. A large number of doctors resigned from their posts including the Principal of NRS Medical College, Saibal Mukherjee, and the Vice-Principal Sourav Chatterjee and about another 100 senior doctors of various government-run hospitals across the state.

The increasing support of doctors and medical students from all across the country created a pressure on the Government of West Bengal and their Health Minister, Mamata Banerjee; who is also the Chief Minister of the State. But instead of acting on an urgent basis to handle the case, she was accused of being tangled in the political drama. The Chief Minister accused the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI (M)) of provoking strikes and riots in order to topple over the government.

The situation heightened to a point where the Indian Medical Association (IMA) declared a nation-wide strike on last Friday, which involved withdrawal of non-essential health services including Out Patient Department (OPD) services, elective surgeries and diagnostic tests for a whole lot of 24 hours. The major reason of the doctors all over the country being agitated was also the fact that when the Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee visited the SSKM Hospital in Kolkata where the assaulted junior doctors were being treated, she threatened the protesting students and doctors of legal action if they did not end their protests. On non-compliance from the protestors, the Chief Minister ordered the police to clear the premises and only let the patients stay.

A delegation of Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA), Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital and Resident Doctors Association of AIIMS arranged a meeting with the Union Health Minister to submit a representation on the violence against doctors in West Bengal.

Also Read: Doctors – God on Earth

Amidst all the civil disturbance caused in the state and the political blame games behind it, the Governor of West Bengal, Keshari Nath Tripathi summoned a meeting of all political parties of the state to discuss and possibly solve the impasse. The Union Health Minister, Harsh Vardhan also urged the Chief Minister not to tackle the matter as a “prestige issue” and ensure an “amicable end” to it. Meanwhile, the representatives of the doctors refused to go and meet the Chief Minister and discuss their demands, on the grounds that they were concerned for their own safety.

The protesting doctors, however, demanded that the Chief Minister visit them in the NRS College and Hospital to agree on their demands and break the deadlock. There were six major demands of the protesting doctors including stronger security and an “unconditional” apology from the Chief Minister. In the wake of this, the doctors across the country raised the plea to create and implement a stronger law that protected them from such assaults and abuses on their workplace and also safeguarded them by having a provision for a minimum of a seven-year jail sentence for the violators of the law. They also called for provisions in the law that mandated its implementation.

To show solidarity to their colleagues, doctors under their resident banners held marches inside their campus premises. As a sign of respect and sigil of their demands, doctors pan-country wore black bandages on their foreheads and arms. Some doctors worked indoors while wearing helmets to show their concerns for their safety on the workplaces.

But as of recent developments, the protesting doctors of West Bengal have agreed to meet the Chief Minister to negotiate their demands and put an end to the strikes and protests. The meeting was held on Monday, June 17th at the State Secretariat; precisely a week after the causal incident, with 24 representatives of the junior doctors and the media. The Chief Minister said,” One of the key measures could be the creation of an interface between the doctors and the patients that would take the pressure off the medics.” She also proposed that a senior police officer be stationed at every hospital and streamline the admission of patient’s attendants in the emergency section.

“We came here for discussion because we want a solution. We believe that you have good intentions. If possible, please take appropriate action against the unwanted incidents that have taken place.” articulated the doctors during the meeting. They also titled the Chief Minister as their “guardian”.

“We will also try to ensure that more than two people do not enter the emergency ward at a time. And the news of anyone’s death or updates about the patient’s health will be communicated through proper channels and in a most humble manner” declared the Chief Minister while explaining the 10-point security measures the government proposed to implement.

In line with the first and foremost demand of the doctors, the Chief Minister also ordered enquiry and necessary action to be taken against the family members of the deceased patient.

In the end, I’ll ask you this again. Who is the victim here? The family members of the deceased patient, who now have to face police enquiry or the junior doctors who got beaten up for doing their job and are currently in the hospital themselves or the countless number of people who could not get the proper treatment they deserve because the doctors went on protests?

The loss of life is something that can never be compensated. It arises a handful of emotions ranging from anger to despair to defeat. And though the deceased and the family have my deepest condolences, violence is not the measure to resort to. Even if they felt that the doctor and the hospital had not acted with proper care and due diligence, they should have reported the same to the senior hospital authorities and then taken the legal course of action. Resorting to violence has now turned the situation; now entangled in a cobweb of political drama, against them.