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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday asserted that she did not threaten junior doctors at state-run hospitals, who have been continuing cease-work for 21 days now to protest against the alleged rape and murder of a woman medic.
Banerjee said accusations that have come from certain quarters of her threatening the agitating junior doctors are 'completely false' and part of a 'malicious disinformation campaign'.
'Let me most emphatically clarify that I have not uttered a single word against the (medical etc.) students or their movements. I totally support their movement. Their movement is genuine. I never threatened them, as some people are accusing me of doing. This allegation is completely false,' she wrote on X.
Addressing a rally organised by the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad, Banerjee had on Wednesday urged the agitating junior doctors of Bengal to urgently consider returning to duty and said she doesn't want to lodge FIRs against the striking doctors in consideration of their future careers.
Agitating doctors interpreted the chief minister's remark as a "veiled threat" and rejected her appeal to join work.
Banerjee also wrote, "I have spoken against BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). I have spoken against them because, with the support of the Government of India, they are threatening the democracy in our state and trying to create anarchy. With support from the Centre, they are trying to create lawlessness and I have raised my voice against them."
The chief minister also issued a clarification with respect to her “snap back” message to her supporters against “the conspirators who need to be unmasked”.
“I also clarify that the phrase (phonsh kara) that I had used in my speech yesterday is a quote from Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa. The legendary saint had said that occasionally there is need to raise one's voice. When there are crimes and criminal offences, voice of protest has to be raised. My speech on that point was a direct allusion to the great Ramakrishnite saying,” she posted on her social media timeline.
The BJP, on Wednesday, accused Banerjee of threatening opposition parties by abandoning her previous slogan of badla noy, badal chai (no revenge, only change) in response to alleged insults from the opposition.
At the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad rally, Banerjee remarked that the slogan needed to be updated to reflect changing times and situations.
"The time has come to resist and protest when you are insulted and maligned with false propaganda. Although I never promote violence, when faced with such ugly attacks, do not take it lying down and snap back. How you respond is up to you," she said, referring to a story around the 19th Century Bengal mystic Ramakrishna Paramhansa.
Banerjee's clarification, however, failed to pacify the opposition, who previously accused her of threatening "participants of a democratic movement demanding security for women in the state".
Taking to X, BJP MLA and Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal assembly Suvendu Adhikari said, "Don't mince your words. There's no malicious disinformation campaign against you. The media is calling spade a spade. You have threatened the agitating medical students & junior doctors and warned them about taking action against them if they continue their agitation."
He also alleged that Banerjee tried to "scare them of the dire consequences, including their career getting hampered" if she lodges FIRs against them.
"Moreover you have issued threat to create anarchy in Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Assam, entire North Eastern India, UP and even creating unrest in Delhi for toppling an elected government," Adhikari said.
BJP Rajya Sabha MP and party spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said, “Banerjee's volte-face would not help in soothing the frayed nerves of junior doctors who are aggrieved over her veiled threat and hardened their stance."
Senior Communist Party of India-Marxist leader and Rajya Sabha MP Bikash Bhattacharya said, “Mamata Banerjee is known for changing her stand on different issues even before coming to power and this is another example of that.”
“Because of her threats, a CPI-M rally at Durgapur in Paschim Bardhaman district was attacked and our workers, including an elderly woman, were injured,” he claimed.
Congress leader and party spokesperson Soumya Aich said, “The CM was speaking like a dictator. She blamed the agitating junior doctors for the disruption in the healthcare system. The CM's words are the manifestation of an autocratic regime.