Shiban Khaibri
Apart from the core meaning of appeasement, it also literally refers to giving a group of people what they want, to prevent them from being angry with you or harming you. ‘Angry,’ under our democratic system is taken as not voting for you , hence even at the cost of earning displeasure or distancing you from the majority community, you must indulge in appeasement. It is a natural corollary that one’s appeasement means the ‘other’s annoyance or aggravation. Though slightly out of reference , one of the guiding principles under capitalism and a free market economy is what we were taught about the theory of ‘Laissez faire’ or no interference by the Government in the functioning of the economies and the businesses and if that principle of ‘no interference ‘ was applied in the basic culture and the civilization of India, the ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ or the ‘world is one family’ right from the day we got independence in August 1947 and after succumbing to communal Muslim League’s demand for partition , India’s position would have been much better on social, economic and political fronts. The point is not only debatable but carries lot of significance and sensitivities for the future of India.
80 year old Mohammed Syed who reportedly with a cardiac arrest was admitted in a Government hospital in Kolkata, suffered one more attack in the hospital in front of his relatives and despite all the efforts of the Doctors including injecting life saving drugs, the patient could not be revived indicating the limits of the medical science. It is pertinent to note that for a Doctor , a patient is nothing more than a precious human body for treating which he or she leaves no stone unturned and which religion, caste, language , region, colour or whatever the body belongs to, a Doctor is least interested or concerned excepting treating and succouring the patient. Moreover, it is the desire of every Doctor to emerge successful in one’s efforts to treat and save a patient as it gives one not only a sort of professional pride but a satisfaction of its own hue.
That a Doctor worth the name can be wilfully negligent to the extent of causing death to a suffering person who comes under his or her refuge, is next to impossible unless the one in question was totally incapable and inefficient, less knowledgeable and short of experience .The question is as to why heckling should start after the patient’s death resulting in organised goons coming to the hospital in vehicles to attack the doctors physically rendering one critically injured with skull injuries and ransacking hospital property. The climax of paradox is that the cops present in the hospital could not rein in the attacking goons . How come reportedly two truckloads of goons enter the hospital and gather so much courage , temerity and brazen hardihood to attack the Doctors , abuse and threaten them including causing damages to the property , is the moot question. If on individual basis , some type of incident would have taken place , perhaps the matter would have not escalated this far . It was for two reasons . One, that the political atmosphere in West Bengal is made so fragile that each incident is seen in terms of ‘which’ religion, which party affiliation and the latest one -whether ‘baahar ke or Bangla ke’ and the attacking goons knew the political patronage, ‘advantage’ and the immunity they enjoyed. Two, the patient was a Muslim and the Doctors attending on him were non Muslims. If such communal colours and twists are so brazenly given for day to day incidents which otherwise happen in normal course in hospitals, on roads , in offices and institutions , God only knows where it would all lead this country to . Such a mindset has to be not only diagnosed but treated as well.
This incident took place on June 10 and now it is for a week almost the entire country, barring a state or two , is plunged into a unique medical care crisis where the Doctors have either deserted their wards and units including Emergencies in the hospitals , struck work in full support and backing or are agitating and protesting demanding protection from such attacks. Right to life and security is the fundamental right of every Indian and in that, their demand for protection from physical attacks is not only genuine , straightforward and legitimate but required in absolute terms. Wise people in administration are those who at the very moment of eruption of an escalation , put in all the best of theirs to de-escalate it there and then, instead of making any prestige issue or score egoistic points out of it . Despite increase in medical colleges, the medical seats therein and as a result, there being a total annual intake of 67300 MBBS students at the medical colleges regulated by the Medical Council of India as also producing of medical graduates in the traditional Indian system of medicine regulated by Central Council for Indian medicine, India is still reeling under the shortage of Doctors . Take any Government run hospital in the country, the shortage of Doctors and the para- medical staff as also the facilities are far from being satisfactory. There are more reasons , causes and argumentation for the problem . However, various steps taken by the NDA Government during the last five years may result , by the end of the current year, in achieving of the benchmark of the World Health Organisation recommended Doctor to population ratio of 1:1000 as against 1:1750 at present .
Looking to the far from satisfactory medical facilities in the country like we helplessly see in Bihar where over a 100 children have died of the mysterious fever, there was absolutely no logic to fan the trouble in Kolkota and see it escalating into a nationwide stir . What sense is there to speak by a person no less than the Chief Minister herself that the BJP was instigating the doctors not to treat the patients of a particular community or bring in the illusory ‘outsiders’ or threatening to evict the Doctors from the hostels ?How could the Doctors be outsiders or “I will not support them in any way and I condemn the Doctors who have gone on strike, policemen die in the line of duty but the police do not go on strike , protests were a BJP conspiracy…” It is strange to note that she was not going to address the main immediate issue but get in extraneous ones, purely political, laced and iced with appeasement especially after having lost 18 Lok Sabha seats to the BJP. Attacks on Doctors and threats etc in Bengal did not stop after the main incident simply because of the inept dealing by Mamta Banerjee but there were many particularly of intimidating and threatening nature and that is quite unacceptable. Who got emboldened and due to what post attacking incident on the Doctors, is worth probing. Why till now, all the attackers are not in jail?
Equally unfortunate is that the main national media did not appear to be bothered to report the matter in detail. In fact, such an approach is tantamount to providing cover to state government’s wilful incompetence. Had the victim Doctors and the deceased patient’s hostile relatives been of a situation different from the actual , most probably Mamta Ji would have herself chosen to sit on dharna in support of and in solidarity with the “victim” Doctors but the situation was different and not fitting into her political scheme and herself being the one who was seen not tolerating the reciting of ‘Jai Shree Ram’ , the intrinsic, ancient and basic religo-cultural compliment and the soul of India, hence the situation took such an ugly turn. By the time, these lines are printed, most probably the situation must have been changed for resuming duties by the Doctors to alleviate the troubles of the suffering masses across the country and some foolproof security arrangements would have not only been promised but provided too . However, the scars and the fallout of inept handling by the TMC Government in Bengal in respect of the incident shall not get wiped out or erased for years together from the minds of all those who want absolutely no more of politics of appeasement in India to blur and obfuscate fair administration and taking of firm decisions, only for the greed of votes.
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