BENGALURU/BELAGAVI : Medical Education Minister D K Shivakumar landed in a controversy on Monday for talking about the religion of the doctor who treated Siddaganga mutt seer Shivakumara Swamiji at a Chennai hospital. He was forced to apologise later after coming under flak from the opposition BJP and the junior pontiff of Siddaganga mutt.
Shivakumar who arrived in Belagavi after vising the seer at Dr Rela Institute and Medical Centre in Chennai was all praise for the hospital and Dr Rela who performed the surgery on the seer.“We all keep harping on caste and religion. I feel that there is no hospital in Karnataka that could match the Rela institute. The hospital is named after the Muslim doctor Mohamed Rela. The doctor from the minority community is world famous and has rendered excellent medical care for the 111-year-old seer,” Shivakumar told reporters in Belagavi.
Expressing his displeasure at mixing religion even in medical service, the junior pontiff of Siddaganga mutt said, “Why bring religion into hospitals? There will be personnel from all religions in all the hospitals. A doctor is like God. We should not look at them in any other form.”
Launching an offensive against the minister, BJP leaders R Ashok and Shobha Karandlaje said Shivakumar was bringing communal politics even into hospitals. “He is differentiating the doctors as minority and majority community,” they said demanding his apology.