“It shows their weakness…”: Union Minister Chirag Paswan on Mamata Banerjee’s protest rally

Patna (Bihar) [India], August 18 (ANI): Union Minister Chirag Paswan on Sunday slammed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for taking out the protest against her own government and said that it shows the TMC government’s weakness in West Bengal.

“If you take to the streets as the Chief Minister, are you assuring the public of justice or are you creating an atmosphere of fear among them? This somewhere shows Mamata Banerjee’s weakness as a Chief Minister, if the Chief Minister of a state takes to the streets against her own government, her own administration, then it shows their weakness. This shows that perhaps the machinery of your state is not under your control and that is why there is an atmosphere of anarchy in a state like Bengal,” Paswan told reporters.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Shehzad Poonawalla alleged that Trinamool Congress is involved in “destroying evidence” and criticised the INDIA bloc leaders for their lack of response in the alleged rape and murder of a trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

“Instead of catching the goons who ransacked RG Kar Medical College, they are cracking down on citizens, doctors, and opponents. The TMC government is involved in destroying the evidence. They talk about saving the Constitution, but Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Vadra, Mallikarjun Kharge, Priyanka Chaturvedi, the leaders of the INDI alliance, all them are missing in action. None of them have a single word to say. The order that was issued to transfer 43 doctors has also been withdrawn and they are seeing this was a routine order. Why are they withdrawing it? It was done to intimidate the doctors,” Shehzad Poonawalla said.

Earlier today, the students and junior doctors continued to protest over the incident amid rain that lashed parts of Kolkata city.

Doctors have held protests in many states of the country, like Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Mumbai.

The West Bengal Governor’s office alerted medical colleges in the State to beef up security and ensure that women doctors and paramedics are provided with adequate protection.

“Today Raj Bhavan contacted Medical Colleges in the State and alerted them to beef up security and ensure that women doctors and paramedics are provided adequate protection,” Raj Bhavan Media Cell said in a post on X.

Moreover, football fans also came forward and protested near Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata, leading to the cancellation of the Durand Cup match between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal.

Earlier, on August 9, a postgraduate trainee doctor was allegedly raped and murdered while on duty at RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata, sparking nationwide strikes and protests by the medical community.

On August 14, the protest site and the hospital campus at RG Kar were vandalised by a mob, prompting security personnel to disperse the crowd.

Amid the ongoing protests, the Kolkata Police imposed Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (formerly Section 144 of the CrPC), around the Medical College and Hospital for seven days, effective from August 18.