Can’t keep insulting me like this: Mamata Banerjee to doctors outside home

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday met the junior doctors, protesting over the rape-murder of a trainee doctor at a state-run hospital in Kolkata, outside her home and asked them to join the talks as they persisted with the demand to livestream the meeting. But, the meeting did not go ahead for the second time this week after Mamata Banerjee cited constraints about the livestream.
Frustrated with the delay in the talks, Mamata Banerjee told the protesting doctors waiting outside her home in the rain, “Today, you said you wanted a meeting with me. I agreed and I have been waiting. Please do not insult me like this. Earlier, I waited for you for two hours, but you didn’t come.”
The Chief Minister told the doctors to at least come inside her house and have a cup of tea if they were unwilling to meet her.
“All of us – the Chief Secretary, the Director General of Police (DGP) and the Home Secretary – are waiting for you all. We have given you umbrellas so that you don’t get wet (in the rain). We have also made arrangements for you to sit inside. Please come inside and just have a tea at least if you don’t want to talk with me,” Mamata Banerjee said.
When the agitating doctors persisted with their demand to record the meeting, the Chief Minister stressed that the same was not mentioned in the letter today and said the matter is in court.
“Nowhere in the letter, it was mentioned that you wanted the meeting to be livestreamed. But I assure you that I will record everything and provide a copy to you. I will make sure that the video (of the meeting) won’t be released till the Supreme Court allows it,” she said.
She cited security constraints over the use of videography and the number of doctors being accommodated in her home.
“Fifteen of you were supposed to come here but 40 of you have come here. Can 40 people be accommodated inside a person’s house? I have made all the arrangements for you, though. I beg you all to come inside. If you don’t want to hold a meeting, then at least have some tea,” she said.
Earlier in the day, Mamata Banerjee made a surprise visit to the protest site of doctors at Swasthya Bhavan, West Bengal’s health headquarters, in the Salt Lake area and urged the doctors to return to duty soon.
She promised to look into their demands and said it was her “last attempt” to resolve the crisis. She also said she would not take any action against doctors, adding that “Bengal was not like Uttar Pradesh”.
“I will not take any action against you. This is not Uttar Pradesh. They had implemented the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) and stopped all sorts of strikes and rallies. But rest assured, I will not do anything of that sort. I know that you do noble work,” she had said.

The doctors welcomed Mamata Banerjee’s surprise visit to their protest site, and were invited by the Chief Minister to visit her residence for a meeting at 6 pm.
The doctors have been staging a sit-in outside Swasthya Bhavan since Tuesday with a host of demands, including better security at state-run hospitals and the removal of top officials over the trainee doctor’s rape and murder at RG Kar hospital.
Earlier on Thursday, a proposed meeting between the doctors and Mamata Banerjee did not happen after the state government refused the doctors’ demand to livestream it.
The Chief Minister had waited for two hours at the state secretariat, Nabanna, for a meeting with the agitating doctors to resolve the impasse over the RG Kar rape-murder case. Even as the doctors reached the state secretariat, the meeting did not happen.
Mamata Banerjee had then said she was “ready to relinquish her chair for the sake of the people”.