New centre-TN faceoff, now over med pledge
The raging controversy over the ‘Charak Shapath’ in Tamil Nadu has opened up a new conflict zone with New Delhi. The DMK government, which has been vocal against the Centre’s imposition of Hindi and Sanskrit, as well as introduction of NEET and the New Education Policy, has not taken the break from the tradition lightly. The dean of the Government Madurai Medical College was summarily removed from his post after MBBS freshers discarded the conventional Hippocratic oath and took the new one in the presence of two TN ministers.
The controversy has been brewing ever since the National Medical Commission (NMC), which replaced the erstwhile Medical Council of India, suggested to medical colleges in February that the age-old Hippocratic Oath should be replaced by a ‘Charak Shapath’, in honour of Ayurveda proponent Maharshi Charaka. This also fed into the nationalist sentiments currently thriving in India. On its part, the TN government believes the Charak oath is patriarchal, chauvinistic, misogynist and regressive. One of the passages from the oath says doctors will do a medical exam of a woman only in the presence of a male family member. The government also questions the NMC’s authority to change the long-held tradition of administering the Hippocratic oath when the government medical colleges function under the state government’s Directorate of Medical Services (DME).
The Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association (TNGDA), which had earlier raised objections against the new oath, has now urged the state to reinstate the dean, claiming that neither Delhi nor TN had insisted on or objected to the administration of the Charak oath. The Indian Medical Association (IMA), which had expressed strong disapproval against the proposal, says Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya had assured them that the new pledge would not be mandatory. But the fact is that a modified version of the Sanskrit vow was made available for usage in colleges. With the DME’s fresh circular directing all medical colleges in TN to strictly administer the Hippocratic oath, the stand-off is likely to continue.