NEW DELHI, 19 May 2006 — Doctors and medical students continued their anti-reservation agitation yesterday despite stern action by authorities. At midnight on Wednesday, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) issued termination letters en masse to doctors on strike blaming them for paralyzing the functioning of the hospital. But this move failed to check the stir.
Directing their heat against politicians, AIIMS’ Resident Doctors’ Association suggested that the termination letters should be served against the legislators who frequently stall Parliament at the slightest pretext.
Joined by their colleagues from other states, resident doctors of hospitals run by Municipal Corporation of Delhi took a rally from Red Fort to Raj Ghat. Demanding a rollback of the government proposal to introduce 27 percent reservation for OBCs (other backward classes) in higher educational institutions, the protesters shouting anti-Arjun Singh slogans.
“Illogical reservation policy should be abandoned, as it was an attempt to create vote-banks by dividing people,” the agitating doctors said. They also held placards with anti-reservation slogans.
Wearing black badges to mark their protest, the doctors claimed that their agitation had acquired a national dimension as it had spread outside Delhi. Protests were being held in states, including Assam, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
At AIIMS here, though more than 100 students had begun a hunger strike, by yesterday about 30 were left continuing it. Private and resident doctors have decided to display their support by joining in relay hunger strike. “At least 15 of the students collapsed yesterday (Wednesday). The sugar levels of the students have dipped drastically as a result of the fasting, but we will continue with our hunger strike,” Jitin Jaipuria of Delhi Medical Students said.
“Resident doctors are beginning a one-day hunger strike in support of students who are already on an indefinite hunger strike,” vice-president of the AIIMS Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) Subrato Mandal said. “Private doctors are also joining us here for a relay hunger strike,” he said.
Besides, non-medicos from Jawaharlal Nehru University and Delhi University joined the protesters. School students — from Modern School and Gyan Bharati School — displayed their support for the anti-reservation stir by joining the agitating students yesterday.
The striking students and resident doctors, representing “Youth for Equality,” met Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani at his residence yesterday and submitted a copy of their three-point memorandum to him. The students’ demands include a total rollback of the proposed quota-hike in educational institutions, appointment of a judicial commission to review the existing reservation policy and a statement by Premier Manmohan Singh on the issue. Advani gave them a “patient hearing”.
