Just demands, questionable methods
How does one dissect (weak pun; not intended) the issue of the striking doctors in the Punjab? Because there’s the debate on the issue itself. Then there’s the debate about the leverages being used by both sides. And then there is the issue of how the media is being used to frame the issue in a particular light.
Perhaps, a start from the last one. The media is manned by the urban middle-class demographic and is owned by the elite or the upper middle-classes. Both the workers and their employers are therefore programmed to be against strikes or anything vaguely resembling unionism. These sentiments are so internalised that some of the country’s weakest trade unions are those of journalists. Cartelisation, on the other hand, is the province of the owners and that, they do well. So the Young Doctors Association’s allegations that the media isn’t giving them a fair say are justified, somewhat.
But then there is a leverage that the Punjab government has at its disposal. The buying of adspace, using the provincial exchequer is not the media’s fault. Those “public service messages” are not the media’s portrayal but are treated the same as those who pay to have their detergent advertised. The YDA doesn’t have that sort of money at its disposal but at least it can try to present an effective case to the reporters and editors. And that, conventional wisdom says, an association cannot do if it thrashes the journalists covering strikes.
To segue into what the YDA does have at its disposal, strikes do not really suit this noble profession. This is an essential service. The pay structure of policemen and their officers is also pretty bad, and the job is dangerous to boot, but one shudders to imagine if they went on strikes. The poor patients who go to government hospitals are suffering endlessly. Yes, as the YDA hastens to add, the emergency and indoor patients wards are still operational but the organisation has hinted at eyeing even that option if things didn’t go their way.
All respect to the medical profession but the state hugely subsidises their education. The least they could do in return is keep working while they demand what are just demands, really.
And, lastly, the lot of the doctors in the rest of the country is also pretty bad. There are angry YDAs elsewhere as well. Why has it not come to this pass there? Because they have distinctly political CMs and full-time health ministers to look into these matters and talk to them as soothingly as only a person belonging to the political class can.
While the doctors need to revisit their Hippocratic Oath, the Punjab government, too, needs some introspection.
