Doctors are and will remain next to God. The medical profession is and will remain a noble profession.

In an All-Dharma Gurus spiritual meeting, gurus from all religions participated, and I too spoke on medical profession as also a religion or dharma.

Whether it is doing your duty with devotion and discipline, unconditional love, compassion, nonviolence, unity in diversity, detached attachment and selfless service, all these components of any religion are also the duties of a doctor.

Medical profession should not be politicized. The current strike in West Bengal should be taken up as a national emergency.

Recently, an Indian businessman was sentenced to life in prison for a fake hijack threat on a domestic flight in 2017 that resulted in an emergency landing. Birju Kishor Salla, a resident of Mumbai, was arrested and charged for posing a threat to the safety of passengers and crew on board a plane. He was also fined 50 million rupees ($720,000), which a special NIA court ruled would be given as compensation to the crew and passengers. The 2017 incident, on a flight from Mumbai to New Delhi, resulted in the grounding of the plane belonging to the now-defunct Jet Airways airline.

Each pilot will get compensation of 100,000 rupees out of the fine amount, while each member of the cabin crew will receive 50,000 rupees, and each passenger will be paid 25,000 rupees for the "misery" the incident caused, according to a statement released by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Is the case of a hospital different? 

When a doctor is beaten or assaulted, the situation is the same. The safety of all the patients in a hospital is at stake.

The number of patients in a hospital may be larger than the number of passengers in a plane. In this case it not the threat but the doctor (the pilot) was actually beaten.

Opportunities lost

Instead of playing politics

• The BJP central government should immediately announce the central Act against violence on doctors and medical establishments in the forthcoming Parliament session or by an ordinance.
• The West Bengal Chief Minister should announce a stringent action against all the accused and announce a compensation to all hurt.
• Rahul Gandhi and all opposition leaders should side with the doctors and appeal for a central law in the coming parliament session.

But do politicians really care about the doctors?

Dr KK Aggarwal

Padma Shri Awardee

President Elect Confederation of Medical Associations in Asia and Oceania   (CMAAO)

Group Editor-in-Chief IJCP Publications

President Heart Care Foundation of India

Past National President IMA