BJP workers stage protest outside Kolkata hospital against treatment of non-Hindu Bangladeshi patients | Latest News India

A group of Bharatiya Janata Party workers launched a protest platform in the Mukundpur area of Kolkata on Saturday, demanding that a private hospital stop providing medical treatment to non-Hindu patients from Bangladesh.

The protesters submitted a memorandum to the hospital stating that says, “Country comes first… our brothers and sisters are being tortured and killed over there. Thus, no medical treatment should be provided to non-Hindu Bangladeshi’s.”

“It’s time that we keep our ethics and business aside for the respect of our Nation, Tricolour the Tiranga,” it adds.

“We are pained at what is happening to our minority Hindu brothers and sisters in Bangladesh. They are being tortured and killed. This should be stopped. Nation always comes first,” Narayan Chatterjee, a member of the group, was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

The protestors, under the banner of ‘Salute Tiranga’ have vowed to expand their protests to include all private hospitals, saying they had already done it in another hospital.

Earlier incidents

A 141-bed hospital in Kolkata announced earlier this month that it would no longer admit patients from Bangladesh. According to the hospital, it was to protest the alleged disrespect shown to the Indian national flag in the country amid turmoil.

Another hospital in Kolkata hospital had made a similar announcement as “the national flag of India has been desecrated in various places” in the neighbouring country.

Apart from hospitals in the West Bengal capital, stalls from Bangladesh have been missing from two of Kolkata’s major fairs — the Kolkata International Book Fair and the Bidhannagar Mela Utsav, which is organised by the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC), this year for the first time. The neighbouring country also did not have any representation at the 30th International Film Festival in Kolkata as well due to visa problems.

A two-day Bengali literary festival at Visva-Bharati University’s Bangladesh Bhavan also saw no participation from Bangladesh. This was after several poets and writers from Bangladesh were reportedly denied visas amid rising political tensions between India and the neighbouring country.