TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee ridicules doctors' hunger strike as 'fast-unto-hospitalisation'

Kolkata: Senior TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee on Monday criticised the protesting doctors for lacking the resolve to conduct a genuine hunger strike, accusing them of turning their fast-unto-death into a "fast-unto-hospitalisation."

The TMC MP ridiculed the "timeline of the hunger strike," implying that it starts at the protest venue and transitions to the hospital. He suggested that the protesters' main goal was to attract media attention and secure hospital admission within a day or two of initiating their protest.

"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," he added.

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.