Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee: In a high-drama announcement on Thursday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee offered to quit over the worsening stand-off between her government and junior doctors. The clash centres around the horrific rape and murder of a woman medical student at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital that sparked outrage across the state. The result has been that the situation blew up into an indefinite protest by the junior doctors, demanding justice for their colleague and thereby bringing the state healthcare services to a grinding halt.

The doctors, on protest since last month, were called over a dialogue at the state secretariat Nabanna to sort out the issues. However, despite an earlier confirmation to attend, the delegation refused to meet Banerjee over the issue, thereby creating the deadlock. An angry Banerjee retaliated by saying in a news conference, “We have been waiting for more than two hours to meet our fellow doctors who were invited here. We had written them letters and upon their confirmation, extended the invite. But we haven’t heard back from them so far.”

It is serious that even Banerjee gestured to step down. “I am ready to resign for the sake of Tillotama’s justice and for common people who need medical services,” she said, referring to the victim of that heinous crime. The Chief Minister’s offer to quit underlines her sensitivity not only to the demands of the medical fraternity but also to the larger concerns of the public whose access to medical services has been hit by the ongoing protest.

Despite the doctors’ refusal to engage in any dialogue, Banerjee remained conciliatory, knowing full well that a resolution required talks. “We asked them to come with an open mind and talk about any issue. Solutions can only be found through dialogues,” she said, indicating thereby that her government was all ears regarding the protesting doctors’ demands.

Interestingly, Banerjee did not further escalate the matter by punishing the doctors for their act of disobedience. “I will forgive them because being elders, it is our responsibility to forgive our younger ones,” she said in reflection of a measured approach to the standoff.

It snowballed further into a bigger debate on the safety of medical professionals in the state and put a question mark on the healthcare system amid protests that still continue. Banerjee’s offer to resign has taken the crisis to a new level, with the doctors and the government dug in.

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