Controversy spiraling from debates surrounding Hindi’s status as the national language in India has been heard in the entire country, but one medical college in Tamil Nadu sparked a different row – related to the Hippocratic Oath taken by doctors.
On May 1, reports emerged that a medical college in Tamil Nadu had first-year MBBS students take the ‘Maharishi Charak Shapath’ instead of the Hippocratic Oath during the induction ceremony of the institute, sparking a row in the state.
It was later reported that the Tamil Nadu government had moved to “waiting list” the Dean of the Government Madurai Medical College. The video of the Sanskrit oath was reportedly filmed on March 11, triggering a language row in the state.
Tamil Nadu’s Finance Minister PTR Palanivel Thiaga Rajan and Revenue Minister P Moorthy attended the Freshes’s white coat ceremony at Madurai Medical College, after which they were left “shocked” at the recitation of the Sanskrit oath.
Rajan had said after the event, “I was quite shocked when I heard the new oath; I always thought that the doctors took a Hippocratic oath. In fact, I’ve been recommending politicians to take the same oath.”
A few days after this incident, the Tamil Nadu government removed the Dean of Madurai Medical College. Dr A Rathinavel, who was the Dean of the institute, was removed from the position and placed on the “vacancy waiting” list by the government.
The students of the college, as well as the Tamil Nadu Government Doctors’ Association (TNGDA), came out in support of the dean, saying that reciting the oath was not in violation of the guidelines set by the National Medical Commission (NMC).
“We have been following the competency-based undergraduate curriculum of the NMC since 2019, and we have looked up the NMC’s latest guidelines dated March 31. Though the oath was only recommended, we thought we could follow it as there was no explicit order till Sunday from the state health department or directorate of medical education to only continue with the Hippocratic oath. We had no other underlying intentions,” a students’ council member said.
On May 4, the government of Tamil Nadu decided to reinstate the Dean of the Madurai Medical College, as Chief Minister M K Stalin said that he has "expressed regret" and also kept in mind his “good work” during the Covid-19 pandemic.
(With inputs from agencies)
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