KOLKATA: While many former students of R G Kar Medical College have been visiting their alma mater regularly to stand by the protesting junior doctors, several senior alumni members went to the protest site on Monday to express their solidarity. Most of them had been a part of the West Bengal's health system before their superannuation and had served as professors and even as administrators. The protesting junior doctors said the presence of the senior doctors was motivational.
Among them was neurologist Trishit Roy, former director of Bangur Institute of Neurosciences, who visited his alma mater despite his physical condition. Roy had even participated in the reclaim the night procession in Salt Lake on the night of Aug 14.
"Once a prestigious institute, R G Kar - minus any kind of controversy - is now embroiled in a lot of controversies. It pains me to see its degradation," said the neurologist, who passed out MBBS from the medical college in 1969. Anaesthesiologist Mandira Basu, who had done both MBBS and post-graduation from the medical college, also joined the agitation."During my PGT days, we also used to work 24 hours at a stretch. We had never felt any kind of insecurity. The rape and murder of the junior doctor has put us in shame and pain," said Basu, who has also worked in various medical colleges including IPGMER and Medical College Hospital Kolkata.
The group of senior doctors from the batch of 1964, all in their mid-70s, went together. "It is our responsibility to be a part of the agitation," said Pradip Ranjan Bhattacharya, former Ophthalmology adviser to the West Bengal govt at Regional Institute of Ophthalmology.