Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee on Monday sparked a controversy for protesting doctors against the RG Kar rape and murder case.

The TMC legislator accused the doctors of lacking resolve to go on a “real” hunger strike and said their fast until death would become “fast until hospitalization”.

The senior lawmaker's comments come as the health condition of two more protesting doctors deteriorated on Monday and one of them was hospitalized, news agency PTI reported.

“What kind of hunger strike is this? It starts at the protest site and ends once they are taken to the hospital. The hunger strike we know is a fast until death, not a fast until hospitalization. What these doctors do is quick hospitalization. Do you have so much fire in your belly?” Banerjee asked.

The TMC MP also questioned the timing of the hunger strike, claiming that it starts from the protest venue and ends at the hospital. He also claimed that the protesters' main goal was to attract media attention and get hospitalized.

“Just the day before yesterday I saw one of the doctors fasting and the next day he was taken to a hospital. Such tricks are used to attract media attention,” he added.

The meeting does not resolve the impasse

The meeting between representatives of 12 doctors' associations, state secretary Manoj Pant and home minister Nandini Chakraborty failed to resolve the deadlock as the state government refused to set a timeline for implementing its list of demands to ensure safety of doctors in West Bengal.

Pant claimed that the state government had addressed seven of her 10 demands and asked the young doctors to end their hunger strike “immediately”.

“They demanded specific timelines for the remaining three demands. Since these are administrative decisions that the state must take into account, we cannot give a deadline at this point. We assured them that we have taken note of their problems and complaints. We requested them to convince the young doctors to call off their hunger strike as we are concerned about their health and welfare,” Pant said.

The doctors questioned the absence of Health Minister NS Nigam from the meeting, who the government claimed was in Delhi to monitor the Supreme Court hearing in the RG Kar rape and murder case. Dismissal of Nigam and initiation of an internal departmental investigation into his actions is one of the main demands of protesting junior doctors.

The October 5 hunger strike was followed by a nearly 50-day “work stoppage” in two phases. Their agitation began after a postgraduate student on duty was raped and murdered at the government-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9, 2024.

(With PTI inputs)