At a time when mass movement demanding justice in the RG Kar rape-murder case has been intensifying across West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday appealed to the people to return to Durga puja festivities, alleging that the Centre and some Left parties have been conspiring over public outcry.

“Durga puja is round the corner. One month has passed (since the murder of the young doctor), I appeal to the people to return to Puja festivities,” Banerjee said while speaking at an administrative review meeting at the State secretariat.

“This (protest following RG Kar incident) is definitely a conspiracy by the Centre. Some Left parties are also involved in it. Some people are taking advantage of the turmoil in the neighbouring country. They have forgotten that India and Bangladesh are separate nations,” Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress supremo, said.

Commenting on the Chief Minister’s appeal to the people of the state to return to Puja festivities, BJP leader and the Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari took a dig at Banerjee. “Do you think people of the State are puppets who will dance to your tunes? They would call off protests and return to festivities just because you have asked them to do so!! Devi Paksha has not started yet and the killing of Asura (demon) is still awaited,” Adhikari said.

Notably, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar on Sunday said he decided to resign from Parliament primarily because of the West Bengal government’s “faulty handling” of the most spontaneous public movement following the gruesome rape-murder case at the RG Kar hospital.

“They (common people) want no politics: they want justice and punishment. Let us analyse frankly and realise that the movement is as much for Abhaya as it is against the state government and the party,” Sircar said in his letter to the Trinamool Congress chief.

Meanwhile, agitating junior doctors at the state-run R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital said they were “unhappy” about the Supreme Court directing them to return to work as they still feel insecure at the hospital.

The Supreme Court on Monday urged junior doctors in the state government hospitals and associated medical colleges to return to their work by Tuesday 05.00 pm, failing which the state government is free to initiate action against doctors staying away from their duties.

“We are not seeing any safety measures taken by the hospital authorities. In my department (at RG Kar hospital), I have not seen any CCTV cameras so far. No separate duty room has been created. We are not feeling safe at all. As all the culprits have not been arrested so far, how can we return to work?” wondered one of the female junior doctors.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been probing into the rape and murder of the 31-year-old doctor at the RG Kar hospital. The body of the on-duty woman doctor was found on August 9.