The midnight crackdown of protesting MBBS students by Haryana police has drawn flak from the medical fraternity across the country. The resident doctors bodies and federations in Delhi have denounced the alleged brutality medical students faced a day ago while peacefully protesting against the state government bond policy for taking admission in government medical colleges.
The Federation Of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) has urged doctors across India to observe "black day" today, Monday, November 7 as a mark of condemnation to the alleged action by the state police over the protesting students who accused the cops of using water cannons and man handling them while sit-in protest, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.
"An unwarranted fee hike in the form of a despicable bond policy followed by police action on innocent doctors who have given their best in all circumstances including the COVID pandemic, shows the apathy and weak memory the government has. Such incidents will not only bring down the morale of doctors in the particular state but also the country in general. As a show of solidarity and unity amongst our fellow colleagues and as a symbol of our denunciation for what has happened, we call for a nationwide observance of a black ribbon protest on the 7th of November, 2022," the federation said, as per TNIE.
Dr Sarvesh Pandey, General Secretary, FORDA, informed that majority of doctors from Centre-run and Delhi government administered public hospitals including Safdarjung, RML and Lok Nayak, will work wearing black ribbons during the day. "This is to show our support against the police brutality our fraternity members faced and to ensure such incidents don't happen in future," he stated.
Bone of contention
The bond policy that demanded a total of Rs 40 lakh bond money for the four-year medical courses with Rs 10 lakh per year was introduced this year. However, after protest, the state government announced that the students taking MBBS admission in government medical colleges need not to pay the bond amount, instead, they will now only have to enter into a bond-cum-loan agreement of the amount with the college and the concerned bank.
