West Bengal doctors' standoff: Tension escalates as unidentified men barge into NRS campus

KOLKATA: The worst fears of junior doctors protesting in NRS Medical College and Hospital came true two minutes before 4.12pm deadline that chief minister Mamata Banerjee had set for them to resume work or face action. Soon after cops posted in front of the main gate of the hospital were suddenly removed without any reason or provocation.
Fifty men whom nobody in the hospital could identify barged into the campus and headed straight to the spot in front of the emergency department where around 200 junior doctors were protesting.
Close to 75 female junior doctors were rushed inside the hospital premises to safety while male doctors started defying the attackers. More reinforcements of junior doctors arrived from the hostel and those who were guarding the other gate of the hospital also joined. Patients waiting for services to resume inside the hospital had to be rushed to safety by their families. Many children and women even fell down while reaching to a safe spot.
“They kicked the pedestal fans and tried to break the temporary structure we built to take refuge from the scorching sun. They abused and said, ‘now we will teach you a lesson. You guys have the guts to mess with us?' But we put up a united front and chased them away since we were more in numbers,” said Deepak Giri, one of the junior doctors at the hospital.
Hopes of any reconciliation between the junior doctors and the administration to break the impasse and resume services for thousands of patients became the casualty of the entire fracas that did not last for more than five to seven minutes. The battle lines were drawn with junior doctors pushing everybody including the cops outside the hospital and locking the gate.
Many doctors alleged that the cops moved away to make way for “goons of a political party” to barge in and attack them.
“The senior officers were sitting outside the gate the whole day and as soon as they moved away, TMC hooligans entered and beat us up. Should we not assume that the police were removed to help these lumpen elements to attack us. This hints a conspiracy,” said Prashant Thapa, another junior doctor.
At around 3.45pm Debosmita Das, deputy commissioner of police, ESD and her contingent who were sitting just outside the hospital since 11am in the morning suddenly got up and entered the hospital. She headed to the superintendent’s office where she had a half an hour meeting.
Relatives of the patients admitted inside the hospital faced tremendous problem as junior doctors started checking passes of everybody before entering the hospital premises. Movements of ambulances and hearses were also affected with a crowd gathering at the gate.
“I had stepped out to buy bread and milk for my ailing son who is admitted in the hospital for the past one week. When I returned I saw a huge commotion in front of the hospital and the gate was shut. I had to wait for half an hour since the police were not allowing anybody to get close to the gate. After that I stood in a queue with 25 people to identify myself before I could enter,” said Anuradha Maity from Taki.