Mamata-Doctor Meeting: Deadlock Continues Over Live Stream, CM Says 'You Can't Keep Insulting Me'

As the doctors declined to enter her residence until the meeting was live telecast, Mamata said: "We will video-record the meeting to end RG Kar impasse, will provide it to you after SC's nod."

The deadlock between the protesting junior doctors and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee continued during the second meeting on Saturday as the medics reiterated the demand for live-streaming the proceedings.

Mamata said that the live streaming of the meeting cannot be allowed as the RG Kar issue is before the court. "We will video-record the meeting to end RG Kar impasse, will provide it to you after Supreme Court's nod," the CM told doctors amid the impasse.

Mamata Banerjee interacted with the doctors' delegation that had come to meet her at her residence. Requesting them to come inside, she said: ""All of us - chief secretary, DGP and home secretary - are waiting for you all. We have given you umbrellas so that you don't get wet (in the rainfall). We have also made arrangements for you to sit inside. Please come inside and just have a tea."

She further said: "15 of you were supposed to come here but 40 of you have come here. Can 40 people be accommodated inside a person's house? I have made all the arrangements for you, though. I beg you all to come inside. If you don't want to hold a meeting, then at least have some tea."

After the doctors refused to give in and the talks failed for the second time, Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant and other officials left from the CM's residence. 

This came hours after the Bengal CM paid a surprise visit to the doctors at their protest site outside state's health department headquarters, Swasthya Bhavan, promising them to look into their demands. Junior doctors have been protesting over the rape and murder of a 31-year-old trainee doctor at the state-run RG Kar Hospital in Kolkata last month. 

The doctors welcomed the surprise visit and arrived at Mamata Banerjee's residence, hoping to discuss and resolve the RG Kar impasse. She had invited them to visit her at her residence at 6 PM today. However, the medics did not go inside, claiming that their videographer was prohibited from entering the premises.

Dr Arnab Mukherjee, a junior doctor who was part of the delegation that went to meet CM Mamata Banerjee, said: "We requested for live streaming of this meeting. The Chief Secretary said live streaming is not possible as it is CM's residence. We told the Chief Secretary that we want live streaming so that transparency is maintained. We also said please consider our videographer so that he can record the meeting. But CM's security was shooting the video and they said it is for security reasons. We want live streaming so that proper transparency of this discussion and meeting is maintained and other junior doctors present at the protest site can also know what happened in this meeting. That's why we are waiting in front of the main gate of CM residence as we want live streaming of this meeting."

Following this, Mamata Banerjee reiterated that she would allow the meeting to be recorded but the live streaming cannot be allowed as the matter is before the court. She said that she has been waiting for so many days for the meeting to resolve the impasse and requested the doctors again to hold talks. Visuals of her waiting for the doctors at her residence have also surfaced.