The R.G. Kar Protests Conquered Fear. But Have They Done Much Else?

For 42 days, junior doctors of Kolkata agitated, weathering sweltering heat and pouring rains. Others spent sleepless nights on streets trying to reclaim the nights, and raising their united voice against the endemic corruption that defines the Bengal regime. 

For the first time in living memory, Kolkata witnessed human chains running over many miles – a mark of unity and resolve. Protesters’ voices grew louder and gathered strength. Otherwise apathetic citizens – young and old alike – came out on the streets in the thousands demanding changes.

It was a surreal moment pregnant with the potential to usher in real change. But the moment has passed and its possibilities have dissipated. The doctors were finally exhausted by the very politics that they so carefully tried to keep at bay. All the levers of the corrupt system were left in place, unchanged, only a few officials were moved without any punitive action, to make sure the agitating doctors returned to work. The regime has  conceded nothing.

In civil service, transfers are routine, and it is a time-tested technique to replace frontline officials when they face people’s wrath to diffuse a situation and douse public anger. It would take no time before the new faces start looking identical to the ones they have replaced. The perpetuation of an old, corrupt and decrepit system continues.

Indeed, the young junior doctors, full of idealism and fire but with no experience in politics, were no match for an astute and crafty politician like Mamata Banerjee who knows pretty well how to play with public sentiment and to turn adverse situations to her advantage. She has survived Sarada, Narada, the massive teacher recruitment scam and even Sandeshkhali, having emerged stronger after every passing blot. 

The agitating doctors had possibly thought that it only required popular support, which they had aplenty, to sustain a people’s movement and that politics would distract and divert the spirit of the movement while only allowing some political party to gain. They wanted to retain unfiltered the spirit of their movement, which was against the large scale corruption which has permeated every nook and corner of West Bengal’s healthcare system for many years now, right from appointment to admission to examination to financial management, and against the overwhelming power of a coterie close to administration sustained by a pervading threat culture in state-run medical colleges.

In their idealism, they failed to appreciate that only politics can bring change in a stable democratic society like ours, even with all its flaws, and that the Bangladesh model simply does not apply to India. If they doubted the intent of the existing political parties, not without valid reasons, they should have formed or facilitated the formation of a new political outfit, drawing lessons from how the Aam Aadmi Party had sprung up from Anna Hazare’s movement against corruption – even there, the leaders at the vanguard of that fledgling party were inexperienced in politics, but that did not prevent them from tasting electoral success, riding piggyback on public anger and disenchantment against the existing regime. It could have been a similar story in Bengal also.

A pragmatic approach for the opposition too could have been to bury their differences and agree to a common agenda with the agitating doctors till an election could be forced, but it was not to be. Banerjee knew that the agitation would fizzle away.

Also read: A Non-Political Movement Is Uncharted Territory for Mamata Banerjee

While the doctors have asserted that if the assurances and promises made by the government remained unfulfilled, they would restart their agitation, they also know that the moment that offered them the opportunity for achieving justice has receded forever. They had decided collectively in favour of the partial resumption of services, assured by the directives of the government to ensure the safety and security of healthcare workers and the efficient functioning of the public healthcare system. If they really believed, even for an instance, that these directives and other cosmetic measures that the administration has implemented will cure the healthcare system of its ills and end its corruption, they will only be fooling themselves. 

Indeed, what can be said with certainty is that the administration will lie low for some time while making it appear as if corrective steps are being implemented in sincerity and even thanking the agitating doctors for bringing all this to their notice, as if, hitherto, they were blissfully unaware of all this. But make no mistake, once the heat dissipates away, the system will strike back ruthlessly, hounding out the leaders of the agitation, penalising the intransigent ones and favouring the pliable ones. Every channel of corruption is a funnel that serves politicians. After all, elections have to be fought and won, and they need money. 

But it would be wrong to surmise that the movement had achieved nothing.

It is true that the agitating doctors’ demand for justice remains unfulfilled. In fact, in this there was a disconnect from the very beginning. Justice is delivered not by politicians or the regime, but by the judiciary, and the judiciary delivers justice based only on available evidence. Going by reports, much of it has already been erased, putting serious hurdles before the CBI’s investigation. The arm of the law now may not be long enough to reach the real culprits behind the sordid acts, and justice may remain as elusive as ever, despite the cries of a million voices demanding the same. 

Banerjee has been in office since 2011, propped by her smart social alliances and freebie policies directed at women. But for a time, it even seemed that all her mastery of manipulative politics was inadequate to douse people’s rising anger against her regime. The doctors may not have achieved justice, but they have found the courage not to fear their tormentors any longer. 

At long last, the people of Bengal, at least urban Bengal – the rural areas may take longer still – have also overcome their fear. As the nights in the city deepened, and the glow of the torches held by protesters – symbolising hope and determination – continued to shine in the backdrop of grief, outrage and a depressing sense of defeat, one remembered the words that Faiz Ahmad Faiz wrote almost half a century ago,

Jab zulm-o-sitam ke koh-e-garan
Rooi ki tarah ur jaenge
Hum mehkoomon ke paaon tale
Ye dharti dhar dhar dharkegi
Aur ahl-e-hakam ke sar oopar
Jab bijli kar kar karkegi
Hum dekhenge

“When these mountains of tyranny and oppression will start blowing away like fluff, when this earth will tremble underneath our feet, when lighting will strike the heads of our ruler with thunderous roar, we shall be there to see.”

Govind Bhattacharjee is former Director General at the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. He is a commentator, author and academic. Opinions expressed are personal.