UNTO THEE, MY SUFFERING DOCTOR, UNTO THEE, MY SUFFERING PATIENT, AND UNTO THEE, MY SUFFERING MINISTER
Doctors show remarkable solidarity and resilience in the teeth of stern executive action threatening them. Several scapegoats in the shape of senior executives in charge of hospitals have been made to resign for their failure to discharge responsibly their duties in combating the strike of the junior doctors. But will the security of doctors be by legislation ensured? If not, how will they function free of fear, for the death of patients will recur and hooliganism in its wake will inevitably follow?
The movement for the protection of medical personnel needs to reach its logical conclusion despite the revoking of the disruption of service. Resumption of medical services need not mean that the issue of security has been settled. Rather, the movement must continue on a war-footing even as normalcy in services is restored.
West Bengal must not be allowed to sink to this proliferating mob-culture. This has already destroyed much of our cherished civic ideals and threatens to do far greater damage as appeasement politics proliferates in the State for electoral gains. Let the enlightened within the citizenry come forward and unequivocally point out before one and all the symptoms that afflict West Bengal in the present times, and let them prescribe worthwhile solutions, without fear or favour, how it may tide over the crises that confront it today in almost every sphere. Let cushy political patronage not stifle conscience or steal consciousness of the so-called intelligentsia.
The situation seems grim and does not inspire much hope for the immediate future, for there are too many pretentious people in the corridors of power nationwide and no less in West Bengal whose set agenda in public life is gaining the mandate to rule and bringing about cosmetic changes in policy and indulging in puerile programmes of public welfare which are of no consequence in terms of the uplift of infrastructural facilities and their easy affordability by one and all. Thus, we have a long night ahead as yet before the day breaks, heralding the fragrance of an efflorescent dawn. Till then let us all contribute our mite towards the rebuilding of our fractured polity here in West Bengal through our individual and collective efforts whose focus ought to be on the restoration of democracy here in all its aspects, primary among which is the securing of the sanctity of the person, whosoever he may be, from the mightiest to the meekest.
Let doctors and patients be befriended for once and may the camaraderie continue through the times ahead. Let us no more depend too much on the executive functioning of the government. Rather, let us as individuals serve the people who are our fellow-beings, our brethren, our countrymen. Let us no more make these artificial distinctions between the high and the low, between the doctor and the patient, but let us look upon all with the same sympathetic eye of a common humanity which runs through all. May order be restored ! May peace prevail !
Written by Sugata Bose
Doctors show remarkable solidarity and resilience in the teeth of stern executive action threatening them. Several scapegoats in the shape of senior executives in charge of hospitals have been made to resign for their failure to discharge responsibly their duties in combating the strike of the junior doctors. But will the security of doctors be by legislation ensured? If not, how will they function free of fear, for the death of patients will recur and hooliganism in its wake will inevitably follow?
The movement for the protection of medical personnel needs to reach its logical conclusion despite the revoking of the disruption of service. Resumption of medical services need not mean that the issue of security has been settled. Rather, the movement must continue on a war-footing even as normalcy in services is restored.
West Bengal must not be allowed to sink to this proliferating mob-culture. This has already destroyed much of our cherished civic ideals and threatens to do far greater damage as appeasement politics proliferates in the State for electoral gains. Let the enlightened within the citizenry come forward and unequivocally point out before one and all the symptoms that afflict West Bengal in the present times, and let them prescribe worthwhile solutions, without fear or favour, how it may tide over the crises that confront it today in almost every sphere. Let cushy political patronage not stifle conscience or steal consciousness of the so-called intelligentsia.
The situation seems grim and does not inspire much hope for the immediate future, for there are too many pretentious people in the corridors of power nationwide and no less in West Bengal whose set agenda in public life is gaining the mandate to rule and bringing about cosmetic changes in policy and indulging in puerile programmes of public welfare which are of no consequence in terms of the uplift of infrastructural facilities and their easy affordability by one and all. Thus, we have a long night ahead as yet before the day breaks, heralding the fragrance of an efflorescent dawn. Till then let us all contribute our mite towards the rebuilding of our fractured polity here in West Bengal through our individual and collective efforts whose focus ought to be on the restoration of democracy here in all its aspects, primary among which is the securing of the sanctity of the person, whosoever he may be, from the mightiest to the meekest.
Let doctors and patients be befriended for once and may the camaraderie continue through the times ahead. Let us no more depend too much on the executive functioning of the government. Rather, let us as individuals serve the people who are our fellow-beings, our brethren, our countrymen. Let us no more make these artificial distinctions between the high and the low, between the doctor and the patient, but let us look upon all with the same sympathetic eye of a common humanity which runs through all. May order be restored ! May peace prevail !
Written by Sugata Bose
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