More doctors in Bengal refuse to treat Bangladeshis, Siliguri ENT specialist demands patients offer pranam to national flag

News Mania Desk / Piyal Chatterjee / 1st December 2024

The Tricolour is displayed outside the entrance to a doctor’s private practice in Siliguri, along with a printed message. The Bengali message instructs everyone, “especially Bangladeshi patients,” to offer “pranam” to the flag before entering the chambers. This follows demonstrations in West Bengal over charges that the Indian flag was desecrated in Bangladesh, as well as strained relations between the two nations over the detention of Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das in Dhaka. In recent days, numerous doctors in West Bengal and a hospital in Kolkata have decided that they will not treat Bangladeshi patients.

Sekhar Bandopdhyay, the doctor in Siliguri who demands that patients offer pranam to the national flag before getting treatment at his private chambers, told 

 “It pained me to see that our national flag was disrespected and desecrated in Bangladesh. As a doctor, I do not want to refuse patients. But those who come to my country should respect our flag, our motherland. It seems Bangladesh has gone under the Talibani mindset.”

Bandopdhyay is a senior ENT specialist working as the Special Medical Officer at the ENT department in the North Bengal Medical College Hospital.

“I cannot refuse treatment at the government hospital where I work. But in the private chamber in Siliguri, I have put out our national flag with the message. Those who cannot respect my motherland cannot expect to be treated by me,” he said over the phone.

The message near the flag reads: “Bharatborsher Jatiya Pataka Amader Matrisomo. Ayi Pataka Ke Pranam Kore Chamber e Prabesh Korben. Bisheshoto Bangladesh Theke Agoto Rogita Pranam Na Korle Ekhane Rogi Dekha Hobe Na (India’s national flag is like our mother. Please offer pranam to the flag before entering the chamber. Especially Bangladeshi patients, if they do not offer pranam, they will not be allowed to enter).”

Many Bangladeshi patients travel to Siliguri, North Bengal, which shares a border with the neighboring country and has International Border checkpoints such as Hilli, Changrabanda, and Phulbari. Another doctor, general surgeon and pediatrician Chandranath Adhikary, has stated that he will not see any Bangladeshi patients in his own practice.

Speaking over the phone from Bolpur in Birbhum, Adhikary said: “I am attached to a government hospital in Bolpur. There, I cannot refuse any patient. But I have the freedom to do so in my private chambers. I have decided that I will not see patients from Bangladesh.”

“My country comes first. It hurts to see people, including college and university students, insulting our national flag in Bangladesh… I love my country and cannot provide service to those who insult my country’s national flag. What is happening in Bangladesh is of grave concern to all of us,” said Adhikary, who has shared his decision on social media.

On Friday, a 141-bed hospital in Kolkata declared a ban on Bangladeshi patients as a show of protest following reports that “the national flag of India has been desecrated in various places” in the neighboring country.

Indranil Saha, a renowned gynaecologist, had also stated on social media that he had stopped seeing Bangladeshi patients. On Thursday night, Saha shared a photo on social media that supposedly depicted the desecration of the Indian flag in Bangladesh. “The Indian national flag is lying at the entrance of BUET University! I am stopping seeing Bangladeshi patients in the chamber for now. Country first, income later. I hope other doctors will do the same until the relationship is normal,” Saha had said.

Protests erupted in several regions of Bengal following the arrest last week of ISKCON-affiliated Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das in Bangladesh, as well as reports of atrocities against minorities in the country. India has appealed for a fair and open trial for Das, who was arrested on treason charges. He had organised several protests in Bangladesh to condemn the alleged crimes against minorities.