Eight years after he was falsely accused of medical negligence in the tragic death of 63 children and 18 adults in Gorakhpur’s Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College, a case since proven to be untrue by an internal investigation, and after spending months behind bars under draconian National Security Act for his participation in the citizenship movement in late 2019, Dr Kafeel Khan has picked up another fight for justice.
The doctor who lost his job and career while trying to save the lives of children, who were dying due to a lack of oxygen, was in Kolkata for three tasks—to visit the flood-affected regions of South Bengal for medical camps, to exhibit his solidarity with doctors protesting against the rape and murder of a post-graduate trainee doctor at the city’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in August and to release the Bengali translation of his memoirs of the tragic incident at the BRD Medical College.
Meanwhile, the East Post interviewed him on various issues including the RG Kar Medical College incident, Bengal floods and Uttar Pradesh politics after the Lok Sabha elections.
Mondal: Seven years have passed since the incident that happened to you in 2017…
Dr Kafeel Khan: Eight years.
Mondal: Yes, eight years. In this period you lost your job, on the other hand, you were acquitted in the investigation. What is the situation now? Are you getting your job back?
Dr Kafeel Khan: I was terminated by the Uttar Pradesh government on November 9th 2021, despite a departmental inquiry finding no evidence of medical negligence or corruption. I was acquitted of the allegations.
Apart from this, I was suspended on August 22nd 2017, after the incident on August 10th 2017.
I was suspended for almost four years.
I went to the High Court; I went to the Supreme Court.
Finally, the High Court stayed my suspension.
The court asked, when you (the UP government) reinstated seven out of the nine accused, why had you kept him suspended for four years?
The High Court asked the government to explain it.
Mondal: Nine accused?
Dr Kafeel Khan: When the tragic incident involving oxygen happened at Baba Raghav Das Medical College, an FIR was registered against nine people. The government restored their jobs. Probably because they did not protest or for any other reason, the government has given them back their jobs. Even after the High Court’s statement and inquiry committee, I was thrown out of the job. Within two months after I was fired on November 9th 2021, I filed a case against the Uttar Pradesh Government as to why I was fired. The case has been going on in the Lucknow High Court for the last two years.
Mondal: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did not do well in Uttar Pradesh in the last Lok Sabha elections, on the other hand, the Opposition did well, do you think the situation will change?
Dr Kafeel Khan: Look, I think, the politics that have been going on in the name of religion and caste in the country since 2014, has suffered a setback. Due to the results of 2024 (elections), there is definitely a shocker.
You can look at it this way—who the honourable prime minister used to be and the way he used to work, in an authoritarian manner, it seems to be missing now.
Many things he introduced, many of them he had to roll back. Even within the party, some people have started speaking against him. A few days ago, you must have heard Nitin Gadkari’s comment where he said that he was also offered the prime minister’s post.
People started saying such things internally. Not that nothing has changed. A lot has changed. People dare to speak.
I saw the 2024 (Lok Sabha) elections in Uttar Pradesh; two years earlier, during the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, people were afraid to speak. In 2024, the common people, I am not talking about any party workers, the common people also came out and said, we don’t just want a Ram temple, we also want food, we want housing, we also want employment.
People have taken to the streets due to rising prices and unemployment. As a result, half of the seats came to the hands of the Opposition. Today the situation has come that people are saying that there will be a change of government in the Assembly elections in 2027.
And internally, you may have heard how Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad (Maurya) rebelled and many MPs and MLAs are rebelling.
Religious politics does not last long, people need to understand that the demands related to education, health, jobs and inflation are not only the demands of minorities or Dalits, they are the demands of all.
Mondal: Now you returned from the flood-affected Debra, what did you see? If you can explain the situation a little.
Dr Kafeel Khan: The situation is very bad. I will say that I didn’t think it would be that bad. Thousands of people have been displaced. The primary school where we had our camp, had 86 people in a hall above it! There were women, there were children, there were old people. I was reminded of my own prison days. In the cell, we used to get a space two feet wide and six feet long. Where you have to keep your belongings and sleep. Your clothes, your brushes and utensils had to be kept in it.
In this way, they (the flood victims) divided small areas among themselves. Of course, they are getting food, but they are the ones saying, that all the household items are submerged, gone, everything has been destroyed in the flood.
I think they need to get help from the disaster management fund of the West Bengal government, they need to get help from the Union government as well. Much more needs to be done.
Mondal: What advice would you, as a doctor, give to the Ministry of Health or the Disaster Management Department of the Government of West Bengal in view of these floods? What should they do?
Dr Kafeel Khan: Whenever there is a flood, what is seen afterwards is that many diseases are left behind after the flood waters recede. Like dengue, malaria, diarrhoea and skin diseases, especially we saw many children have skin diseases. There are various diseases in the eyes and ears. Such diseases need to be dealt with.
Primary health centres should not be in such bad condition. State governments should invest in primary health. Health is the responsibility of the state government.
Whatever we say, although West Bengal is not considered among the poor states, the health system is not good if you compare it with South India, even from this country. I went to Medinipur and also went to South 24 Parganas. The doctor-patient ratio is very bad here.
Primary health centres, which are the backbone of any health system, are not doing well. I am showing you a video, I went to a primary health centre. I was amazed that it could be a health centre! Primary health centres should not be in such bad condition. State governments should invest in primary health. Health is the responsibility of the state government.
(While showing a video) See, is it a health centre? Looks like a haunted house. This health centre has only one doctor, one nurse and one pharmacist, to serve the entire village. Look at the situation! Can you read? It is Trilochanpur Primary Health Centre.
I think the health system cannot be fixed unless the primary health centre, which is the first point of contact of the village people, is fixed.
Mondal: After a woman doctor was raped and killed in Kolkata a few days ago, are you observing the movement of junior doctors?
Dr Kafeel Khan: I came to Calcutta for three reasons. The first reason was the RG Kar movement. Not only was the female doctor of RG Kar raped, she was tortured, killed like an animal, raped.
You know what happened afterwards. How they tried to cover it up. The accused, who was arrested, was married thrice, and all three women have filed cases of torture and violence against him. I don’t understand the point of making him a civic volunteer and providing him with a free pass to a medical college. Many people should be punished for this.
Mondal: The movement of junior doctors…
Dr Kafeel Khan: RG Kar is not just a movement of junior doctors. The movement that happened in Kolkata, if you look at the history, the movements started from Bengal and then spread across India…there was a rape in a moving car on Park Street, after that all the accused are out of jail today.
I think, the ability to protest, that is, to protest against what you think is wrong in your mind, in your head, has decreased among Bengalis. That movement was not visible. RG Kar revived that spirit in Bengalis.
Mondal: Are you talking about Park Street?
Dr Kafeel Khan: Yes, Park Street. But people did not come to the streets then. I think, the ability to protest, that is, to protest against what you think is wrong in your mind, in your head, has decreased among Bengalis. That movement was not visible. RG Kar revived that spirit in Bengalis.
I see this movement not only as a movement of doctors. It is the movement of every conscious person. Those who think that what has happened is bad.
Such a big movement which has been going on for 42 days is not like that. For a long time, little by little, anger builds up and one day it explodes. Whatever was happening in the last few years, the anger that was in people, has come out.
Mondal: What do you say about the criticism that is coming against the junior doctors that they are agitating by skipping their duty?
Dr Kafeel Khan: No, look, now they have started providing emergency services. OPD is also running smoothly. Even today you know that the convention was held, where the junior doctors gathered, and the common people were also invited.
Their leader said today, it is not that we have retreated. Until our demands are fully met, our movement will continue. But we also have to understand that the common people who were with us for 42 days are also facing problems. If someone has to undergo an operation, how long will they wait, if someone has cancer, how long will they wait for chemo therapy? If someone has a complex disease, is pregnant… There was a nine-month pregnant woman in that primary school (Debra), I asked her what would you do if you gave birth in this school? What will happen to the baby? What about you? We have to think about these things.
But the government also did not completely crush the movement. The demand to remove the police commissioner has been accepted, the demand to remove the health secretary has been accepted. The demand was to increase the security of the hospital. Just today I read in the newspaper that the recruitment of 12,000 police personnel is going to start from Monday.
The main demand is to stop rape. You know that 90 rapes happen every day in India. Two or three days ago, a ten-month-old child was raped in Gujarat. Even 60-70 year old women are also being raped. Changing it is a long process. We have to teach the children in our house, not only girls but boys too, good touch, bad touch, civility. After that this problem will be removed from our society.
Mondal: Last question, the Bengali translation of your book will be published tomorrow, how popular do you expect the book to be in this state?
Dr Kafeel Khan: Look at the book I wrote on the tragic incident at Gorakhpur Hospital, it has been translated into ten languages. It has received very good responses in each language.
Mondal: Ten including or without Bangla?
Dr Kafeel Khan: In ten languages ​​including Bengali. I got a lot of support from West Bengal. When I was in jail, and when I got out of jail, the people here gave me a lot of love.
Also when I was in jail, the first and biggest protests were in two states, West Bengal and Kerala. People took to the streets for me, even if they didn’t know me. Irrespective of the party, be it CPI, CPI(M), Trinamool Congress, Congress, SUCI, whoever, everyone raised their voice for me. This is what I came for. Yesterday I went to RG Kar Medical College to stand in solidarity with them.
I think this book will be popular. My own purpose in writing this book was that this story should reach everyone. Today this book is available in Hindi, English, Urdu, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Assamese, Bengali and Marathi.
Even today when I am talking to you, the discourse of the last seven years has always been about Dr Kafeel Khan or that incident, but not about the families of those 63 children, who are waiting for justice. My fight is that this story reaches people and those families also get justice.
See its influence on Shah Rukh Khan’s film Jawan, which also took reference from this book, although a woman played the role.
You may know that the book was shortlisted in Mumbai and Bengaluru literary festivals. The translation is also excellent. I am thankful to Setu Prakashani for showing courage. Many people are afraid to publish such controversial books, because of the government’s prying eyes. Because it’s not a story, it’s true, with evidence… I tried to write the book in such a way that you, I mean the readers, feel like they are standing in that hospital, trying to save those kids.
