Senior TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee on Monday (October 14) criticised the protesting doctors over their ‘fast-unto-death’ hunger strike alleging that they are resorting to such “tricks” to “gain media attention”, while also calling their move as “fast-unto-hospitalisation”. Banerjee mocked the “timeline of the hunger strike” stating that it starts at the protest venue and transitions to the hospital.
"What kind of hunger strike is this? It starts from the protest venue and ends once they get hospitalised. The hunger strike that we know is a fast-unto-death, not a fast-unto-hospitalisation. What these doctors are doing is a fast-unto-hospitalisation. Do they have just this much fire in their belly?" he questioned.
"Just the day before yesterday, I saw one of the doctors join the fast and get admitted to a hospital the next day. Such tricks are being employed to gain media attention," the TMC MP added.
Doctors’ fast-unto-death
The 'fast-unto-death' by junior doctors in West Bengal to press for their demands in the wake of the RG Kar Hospital incident entered its 10th day on Monday, even as the health condition of two more medics deteriorated, one of whom has been hospitalised, officials said.
Currently, seven doctors are on a 'fast-unto-death,' including a junior medic from the North Bengal Medical College's ENT department, who joined the strike this afternoon.
The hunger strike, which began on October 5, followed nearly 50 days of 'cease work' in two phases. Their agitation started after an on-duty postgraduate trainee was raped and murdered inside the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.
(With PTI inputs)
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