Aparna Sen appeals to ‘Ma’ Mamata as doctors strike worsens

Kolkata, June 14 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is like a "guardian", a "mother", said renowned actor-filmmaker Aparna Sen as she appealed to the Trinamool chief to "change her stance a bit" and take a more humane view of the threats faced by doctors.

"The Chief Minister is our guardian. I would request her to change her stance a bit on this issue and talk to the young doctors here. They are like your children. Please come here once and talk to them to sort out the problems," she said.

Part of a group of intellectuals from the state who on Friday stood by the agitating junior doctors at the NRS Medical College and Hospital here, Sen urged Banerjee to speak to the striking doctors to normalise the situation, even as the agitation saw nation-wide solidarity from AIIMS and other hospitals across states.

Sen was present alongside stage and screen actor Kaushik Sen, who met the agitating doctors and expressed solidarity to their movement.

"We know that none of you look at the patients' cast or religion while treating them. We also know that you are feeling the pain for the patients who have been left untreated due to this impasse.

"We are with you in this," Aparna Sen said amid loud cheers from the junior doctors at the hospital premises.

Protesting against the brutal attack on two junior doctors by the family members of a dead patient at the NRS on Monday night, doctors across the state have stopped working in most government hospitals in the state since Wednesday.

Banerjee on Thursday afternoon visited Kolkata's SSKM Hospital where she gave the agitating doctors a four-hour ultimatum to withdraw their ongoing strike and warned of "strong action" if the situation was not normalised within the deadline.

The Indian Medical Council has also come out in support of the doctors.