Former Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee (file picture)
Kolkata: Bengal health minister Sharadwat Mukherjee on Monday said citizens have a right to know the health status of their chief minister, drawing a parallel with daily White House medical bulletins when US President Donald Trump was diagnosed with Covid-19.
Whether our CM is physically and mentally fit is something citizens have a right to know,” Mukherjee said. Banerjee’s lawyer said the disclosure “constitutes a serious invasion into the sphere of medical confidentiality, ethics and informational privacy,” citing Article 21, the Supreme Court’s Puttaswamy judgment, and Indian Medical Council regulations, 2022. “Every citizen of Bengal has the right to know the status of the CM’s health. A CM is not a common person.
If I start showing the x-ray plates and MRI scans, she won’t be able to step out of her house,” the CM told reporters at Nabanna.
CM Adhikari said it was not SSKM Hospital that shared Banerjee’s records with him and that the report was part of documents in a CID investigation into the alleged attack that led to her injury, for which she had accused BJP functionaries. “Banerjee probably does not know that she filed a case and the CID took over that investigation. Naturally, no record is supposed to be available at SSKM. Tell her not to poke around too much.