By developer
Forty days after the strike action by junior doctors at R.G Kar, the heroic junior doctors won an important victory, humbling the arrogant administration of Mamata Bannerji and the TMC, the party that ruled the Eastern Indian state of West Bengal with an iron fist since 2011. Not only did the Chief Minister have to come down for discussions with the protesting doctors, she had to concede to several of their key demands, including the removal of the Police Commissioner of Kolkata Police, removing the Deputy Commissioner of North Zone, sanctioning money for improved infrastructure in hospitals, improved security in hospitals and the dismantling of the so-called patient committees which were used to extend political influence over hospitals.
The victory had shaken the confidence of the state government. Its brutal machinery of repression which rested on an army of lumpen cadres and a pliant police was undone by the determined protest of young junior doctors. The inspirational struggle of the junior doctors braving all odds to fight for their just demands, inspired solidarity actions across the country and beyond its borders, but this was not a final victory.
The struggle of the doctors was always for systematic change, this reflected in the demands which struck at the most basic needs for healthcare. The leadership had declared that the movement would continue until all demands were met, even as they decided to make a partial withdrawal of the strike. The government for its part made it clear that it had no intention to follow through with the agreement. The state had only as much work as was necessary to put forward a somewhat credible argument before the Supreme Court.
The progress in implementing CCTVs in hospitals was at a mere 6%, there has been hardly any progress for construction of rest rooms and adequate toilets in public hospitals. A key part of the demand of the junior doctors was the creation of a proper centralized referral system for patients, so far no concrete steps have been taken to implement this. Neither has the state government transferred the Health secretary, who has been one of the main targets of the junior doctor’s protests. The health secretary has been a key figure presiding over the corruption and mismanagement of public hospitals, and is a close confidant of the Chief Minister, who incidentally also runs the health ministry!
Time and again, the state government has delayed or deflected the doctor’s demands, with the principal secretary of the state conducting meetings which go nowhere. It was only after the doctor’s patience ran dry, that they took the decision to return to strike. In the midst of the festive season, the government hoped that the public would be too distracted to support the protests, this was a gamble which did not pay off. The decision was made to go back on the warpath, an ultimatum was given to the government, which they eventually failed. Now the leading junior doctors have come down to hunger strike to meet their demands.
As of now, four of the doctors have become critically ill and are rushed to critical care. Even at this point, when the doctors may well face death, the government continues to drag its feet, hoping the protest would lose its steam and end with a whimper. Instead, this behaviour has only provoked more support, with senior doctors resigning en masse from R.G Kar hospital and Kolkata’s premier SSKM hospital. It is day 57 of the protest movement, and there is no letting down.
The tactics of the TMC
When the protests began, the TMC party’s strategy was to isolate the junior doctor’s strike by ignoring or downplaying the incident. Once the cover up failed, the party had to resort to a strategy of deflection. This too failed when the protests spread to other hospitals and found solidarity from across the country.
As the protests grew, tactics of isolating no longer worked, the TMC pivoted to violence. Lumpen mobs were mobilized to attack the peaceful protesters at R.G Kar hospital, and the police began a crackdown on peaceful protesters by imposing restraining orders. This was followed by a march led by the Chief Minister Mamata Bannerji as a show of force, garbed under the pretense of supporting the rape and murder victim. No one bought the farce, but it was clear that the TMC intended to send a message, one that was less subtly conveyed by it’s MLA Humayun Kabir, who said “there are only 7500 junior doctors and 3 million TMC workers, should it come to that, we will beat every last one of them”.
Tactics of intimidation, violence and isolation all seemed to fail as the doctors found wide support from the people of West Bengal. The core of the protests were in the cities and towns of West Bengal, particularly in the Southern districts. It is because of this, the TMC believed they could isolate and cow the junior doctors into submission. However, the TMC could only reliably rest on the support of the rural population, and even here the party found itself on the backfoot. There was no appetite among the rural population to side with the TMC against the doctors.
Once all tactics in the government’s arsenal appeared to fail, the TMC embarked on a new tactic, the tactic of exhaustion. In the cynical calculation of the TMC, the festive season was weaponized. The festive period beginning with Durga Puja is a very important time for Bengali Hindus, and the people of Eastern India. This is a time of festivities, when the city of Kolkata comes alive with hundreds of decorative pandals and the celebration of the coming of Goddess Durga with great pomp. The government banked on people being distracted by the festive season, enough for them to forget about the doctor’s protests and the issues they raised.
It took over a month before the government was willing to sit down to negotiate in good faith with the protesting doctors. During this whole period, the police stood firmly on the side of the government, acting as their pliant servants, standing against the doctors in their rightful fight for justice. Even at the height of the protests, the Commission of Police would not even meet with the protesting doctors, making them wait for hours on the streets before finally caving. It was an early victory for the doctors and one that showed the momentum was still on their side.
It became clear by September that the doctors were not going to withdraw their struggle, nor did the solidarity with the doctors die down. Even as fatigue was starting to creep in as the festive period came closer, the protests continued on the streets with great numbers. The Supreme Court and Central Agencies, chiefly the CBI, failed the expectations of the doctors, and became the target of their ire. Even as the doctors protested the CBI’s tardy investigation, they did not take their eyes off the state government and held it to account.
The Chief Minister, finding herself besieged by protests in the cities, flood situation in the western districts, and growing discontent in North Bengal with tea workers, time was not on her side. To succeed in her strategy of exhaustion, she needed to do something to buy time. She had to concede. Here began a battle of narratives to secure a moral high ground. Mamata Bannerji had to posture before the public that she wished to negotiate in good faith, but the doctors were adamant, the demand for live coverage of discussions became a tool in her arsenal. Eventually, the doctors conceded that ground, but secured some important concessions.
The concessions were a victory and it encouraged the doctors and those who protested in solidarity, but as would soon become apparent, these also helped the government take a step back to reorganize. The doctors partially withdrew their strike, but kept a token protest.
For the government, the strategy of exhaustion seemed to pay off, now they were ready to clamp down on the protests. The protests had to be silenced completely, while also saving the system of institutionalized corruption which funded the TMC party, and save the top administration of the state. The protests had compelled the state to restrain its police from excessively coercive actions but with the mood shifting around the festive season, the police could return back to their old ways.
When it became clear the government had no intention of keeping their word on the demands agreed to, the doctors returned to the path of agitation. Massive rallies were taken out in the city, here we saw incidents of police attacking the peaceful marches. This only worsened as the puja festivities began.
Protest marches to Puja pandals were planned by the doctors, amidst heavy police presence. The police worked to cordon off the protesters at Esplanade and prevent doctors from reaching certain pandals. In one incident, the police arrested 9 doctors who were leafleting at a puja pandal in support of the doctor’s protest. Those arrested were remanded to a 7 day police custody. Protest marches elsewhere in the city were planned in parallel to the state sponsored puja carnival, the police attempted to barricade the same, using the excuse of crowd control for puja festivities. The public did not bow down and listen. The order was challenged at the High Court which ordered the barricades be lifted. The protest carnival drew more people than the state sponsored carnival did.
These victories emboldened the doctors, but the strategy of exhaustion remained in place. The state attempted to bury the vigour of the movement with the joy of festival, but ended up only sullying the festivities itself.
Counter tactics by the Junior doctors
The strategy of exhaustion is met by determination and militancy. The one thing the protest movement cannot afford is for the momentum to be lost. That is precisely what the state is counting on right now. The usual tricks of the TMC have been foiled one after the other. Ignoring the protests did not work, coercive action and intimidation did not work, the strategy of deflection and pretense did not work. At the end the government was forced to concede ground to the doctors. The TMC ultimately resorted to a tactic of concession and exhaustion. This appeared to give some success, only because of the festive season shifting the mood, and the partial victories helping lull the edge of the protest. However, this victory would prove to be temporary.
It became apparent in the weeks following the agreement between the doctors and the government, that the government had no desire to honestly implement the changes the doctors have sought. The doctors restarted their protests, only to find the mood shifted. Seeing the strategy for exhaustion for what it was, the doctors resorted to the tactic of the hunger strike to bring back attention to their movement. On the 6th of October, right before the puja festivals began, 8 doctors began their hunger strike.
The hunger strike is a risky strategy, it can vitalize a movement and evoke sympathy. However, it brings a great toll on those conducting the hunger strike. The government may still find a way to isolate the hunger strike or even break it by force. The success or failure of hunger strike depends on the attention it can arouse and the strength of the solidarity actions it evokes. The success of the doctor’s hunger strike can be seen in what followed.
While Bengal settled into festivities, the hunger strike of junior doctors kept playing on the minds of people. The government attempted to ignore the protests in the hopes of downplaying it, all it did was disgust people. Now with the junior doctor’s lives on the line, dozens of senior resident doctors expressed their support by conducting mass resignations from public hospitals.
The highlight of this new turn of the protests was without a doubt, the ‘carnival of protest’ which was a direct challenge to the government’s efforts to bury the protest with festivities. The last day of the Durga Puja festivities sees idol immersions when idols across the city are paraded through a section of the Strand road before being immersed in the Ganges. The TMC government had converted this ‘Shobha Yatra’ into a carnival with full pomp and grandeur. The TMC ‘carnival’ saw a tired and exhausted Chief Minister presiding over the festivities, forcing a smile and putting her best effort to put up a show of joy. Less than a mile away at Esplanade, thousands had gathered to support the doctors in a carnival of protest.
The carnival of protest had none of the pomp and forced celebrations that the government back ‘carnival’ had. The show of spontaneous joy, marches and dancing was far more genuine and gathered a much larger number of people than the government’s event. Here too, the Kolkata police attempted to prevent the protest with barricades, the order was fought and won at the High Court. The city and the Chief Minister herself had to bear witness to the support of the doctor’s protest, and suffer the humiliation of witnessing the carnival of protest outshine the puja carnival.
The doctors had once more successfully countered the tactics of the ruling government. The durga puja came and went, and the government found itself besieged on two fronts. While the doctors’ protest went on in Kolkata and the cities of Southern West Bengal, the Northern districts in Darjeeling and nearby towns were witnessing the largest strike by tea plantation workers in recent history. The Chief Minister is now tasked with putting out two fires at once and failing at both ends.
The Darjeeling strike has been temporarily suspended following the payment of an ad hoc bonus of 16%, but the doctors protest continues. As of writing this article, the junior doctor’s hunger strike has entered it’s 13th day. So far 4 doctors have been admitted to hospital under critical care units and the health of the others on hunger strike remain critical. The doctors remain on hunger strike consuming nothing but water. Once a junior doctor’s health falters, another takes their place. The rotation continues to maintain the hunger strike.
The strategy of exhaustion which the TMC banked upon is no longer workable, they will be compelled to pivot once more to granting concessions to dilute the energy of the protests. Yet, the doctors remain steadfast in their demands, a key demand is the removal of the health secretary who is ultimately responsible for the sorry state of public hospitals. The removal of the health secretary would be a surrender by the ruling TMC, and expose the failing of the health ministry, which is run by none other than the Chief Minister Mamata Bannerji herself.
In this battle of wills, the will of Mamata Bannerji is backed by enormous institutional and organizational power, funded by the money of capitalists and the loot of public institutions. Against this, stands the will of the protesting junior doctors and the masses of West Bengal, they must have our fullest and unconditional support in this fight.
The need for solidarity (IMA action, national mobilization)
The strike of the junior doctors evoked solidarity actions in its immediate aftermath. There were protests by healthcare workers and junior doctors in major cities across the country. The solidarity protests extended to the Bengali diaspora in foreign countries as well. The protests in Delhi prompted the Supreme Court to intervene in the matter and attempt to find a way out. The Supreme Court played a double role, while pushing the state government to listen to the junior doctors, the Court also called upon the doctors to return to work.
The lesson to draw from the courts and actions of the judiciary was this, that bourgeois institutions cannot deliver justice, but they can be pushed by protest. The advantage of bourgeois democracy is in this, that there is space to organize and agitate and the possibility to win concessions is greater. However, any chance of victory in struggle depends on the manner in which the agitation is conducted and led. The junior doctors have waged their strike and protest without the leadership of any mainstream political party, and in this lies one of it’s great strengths. They are not led by any political party, but they have shown political acumen, countering the tactics of the ruling party at every step.
They could do this, because of the outpouring of solidarity from the public, the junior doctor’s strike evoked sympathy and support from every quarter of Bengali society, and across the nation. Their struggle has resonated across the world, and no one can deny the just nature of the fight. The solidarity has worked to encourage and strengthen the agitation and given the power to challenge the organizational and institutional might of the TMC in West Bengal. The institutionalized corruption in public hospitals stands exposed, and some of the main actors behind the loot and scandals in the hospital stand disgraced and in prison. The criminal ruling masters are scrambling to save their power, maneuvering and conceding to delay the inevitable fall.
The strategy for the TMC has been to try and break the solidarity of the doctors, be it in creating a narrative to pit the doctors against the patients, or to try and posture as a magnanimous leader ready to offer concessions in front of stubborn ‘politically motivated agitators’. These tactics have failed in the face of a united opposition by the masses, who stand firmly behind the doctor’s in their struggle.
Today, the solidarity among healthcare workers and doctors is once more visible when senior doctors tendered their mass resignation. The Indian Medical Association has also declared their intention to go on strike should the government remain adamant. A national mobilization will compel not only the TMC government in West Bengal, but also the Central Bureau of Investigation (which is currently investigating the case of the murder and rape of ‘Abhaya’) to act.
The desire for systematic change drives the protest and will continue to power the protest of the doctors till their demands are achieved.
ALL OUT SUPPORT TO THE DOCTOR’S STRIKE !
JUSTICE FOR R.G KAR !
DOWN WITH THE TMC !
FREE AND ACCESSIBLE HEALTHCARE FOR ALL !