Mamata Banerjee Offers Resignation As West Bengal Chief Minister Over RG Kar Hospital Case

Mamata Banerjee said on Thursday that she is willing to resign as the chief minister of West Bengal for the sake of the common people who need medical services, amid a standoff with the junior doctors who are protesting over the RG Kar Hospital rape and murder case.

Banerjee had invited the junior doctors to meet at state secretariat Nabanna at 5 p.m. The delegation of 32 junior doctors arrived at the West Bengal secretariat 25 minutes after the scheduled time, defying a government-imposed limit of 15 participants, according to a NDTV report.

However, they refused to enter the meeting hall after officials declined their request for a live stream of the talks, offering instead to record the proceedings.

As the delegation camped outside the secretariat, the chief minister addressed the media at 7 p.m., stating she had been waiting for over two hours and had seen two earlier invitations rebuffed, but insisted that she was not angry.

"I hope that the people understand that they do not want justice... they want chair," Banerjee said. "I am ready to resign from my post for the sake of people. I don't want the chair, I want justice (for the deceased) and treatment for the people (patients)."

The chief minister said the junior doctors were asked to come with an open mind and talk about any issue, adding that solutions could only be found through dialogues.

"We've been waiting for over two hours to meet our fellow doctors who were invited here," Banerjee said. "After exchanging letters and receiving their confirmation, we extended the invitation. However, there has been no communication from them so far."

Banerjee said she would not take any action against the students for not coming and making them wait for two hours. "I will forgive them because being elders, it is our responsibility to forgive our younger ones."

The state has been rocked by protests following the alleged rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor on the premises of RG Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata on Aug. 9.

On Monday, the Supreme Court directed the protesting doctors to resume their work, recognising that the protests cannot continue at the expense of their duties. The top court's directive came on the heels of senior advocate Kapil Sibal's submission that 23 people lost their lives on account of protesting doctors not working.

The court has said that if the doctors do not resume their duties by 5 pm on Tuesday, the state will be open to take action against them. However, the protesting doctors are yet to join work and have been staging a sit-in in front of the Swasthya Bhawan at Salt Lake over various demands, including the resignation of the health secretary and the Kolkata police commissioner.