‘How can I ask protesters to return to festive mood’, asks RG Kar victim’s mother

Kolkata: The mother of the junior doctor who was found raped and murdered at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on Monday questioned the appeal made by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee that the protestors should return to festival mood ahead of next month’s Durga Puja and refrain from stating mass agitations.

Interacting with mediapersons on Monday, the Chief Minister said, “If you stay on the roads every night, it will cause inconvenience to many people, especially the elders. There is a bar on using microphones after 10 p.m. which we have ignored so far. I will request all of you to get back into festival mood. I will also request the CBI to ensure justice in the RG Kar case.”

“All the lights of the festival at my residence have extinguished following the horrific end met by my daughter. In such a mental state, how can I ask the protesters to return to festive mood? What the Chief Minister said was an attempt to end the spontaneous protests demanding justice for my daughter,” the victim’s mother told the media after the Chief Minister issued the appeal through media from the state Secretariat Nabanna.

The protesting junior doctors also found the Chief Minister’s appeal ‘highly insensitive’.

According to them, the appeal is an attempt to isolate the protesting representatives of the medical fraternity from the people who have joined the protests spontaneously from different walks of life.

The junior doctors also did not buy the Chief Minister’s claim that although Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Kumar Goyal met her with the intention of resigning from his post, she did not accept his proposal keeping in mind the forthcoming festive season starting with Durga Puja (October 9-13).

According to them, not accepting Goyal’s resignation is equivalent to insulting the mass demand for his removal from the chair.

“Using the festival season as an excuse is unacceptable,” a protesting doctor said.

Meanwhile, Bengal BJP President and Union Minister of State Sukanta Majumdar said the Chief Minister does not have the right to dictate people as to when they will end their agitation on such a sensitive issue.

“Entire Bengal is in a state of shock. Even elderly persons who never walked in any procession in their lives are now on the streets condemning the ghastly rape-murder. But instead of expressing solidarity with the spontaneous protesters, the Chief Minister is asking them to get into festival mood. This is simply unacceptable,” Majumdar said.

–IANS