Patna: Doctors in Bihar have threatened a nationwide agitation against parliamentarian Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav after he termed their Indian Medical Association (IMA) association as the ‘Indian Murderers’ Association’.
Ranjan who hails from Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal reportedly made the remarks at his “people’s court” in Purnia district on Monday, triggering strong protests from the doctors’ community. Indignant doctors have now urged Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi to rein in the parliamentarian before they decide to take their own course of action.
“We are really pained at the ongoing activities of Yadav and have requested our apex body to launch nationwide agitation against the parliamentarian who is vitiating the medical atmosphere in Bihar,” state IMA vice-president Sahjanand Prasad Singh told the media. He added the doctor community was also considering legal action against the parliamentarian who has been constantly spitting venom against them for the past four months.
Peeved doctors have now requested the chief minister to “rein in” the parliamentarian before things go out of control. “It’s high time the government acts against the parliamentarian who is using abusive language against us or we will be compelled to boycott medical works,” threatened IMA’s former vice-president VS Singh.
The RJD in the meanwhile has distanced itself from Yadav clarifying the party had nothing to do with his programmes and also asked the party leaders to stay away from his programmes.
The doctor community has turned angry as Yadav has launched a drive against fake doctors and quacks in Bihar, blaming them for deaths of innocent people in illegal private clinics flourishing in the country side.
Yadav launched a massive agitation in Bihar soon after getting elected from Madhepura Lok Sabha seat in this year’s general elections, after defeating mighty fellow caste leader and Janata Dal (United) president Sharad Yadav.
“Fake doctors and quacks operating in the rural parts of the state are playing with the life of the common, poor people and I can’t be a silent spectator to all these happenings,” Yadav told Gulf News over phone adding he could disappoint the masses who showed deep trust in him and elected him.
Yadav who only last year was acquitted by the Patna High Court in the 1998 murder case of former Communist Party of India (Marxist) lawmaker Ajit Sarkar said he could go to any extent to fight for the cause of the ‘common man’. “If required, I can even resign from the seat,” he declared.
Last month, on October 25, Yadav even handed over a list of some 27 fake private clinics and nursing homes operating in his parliamentary constituency to chief minister Manjhi to act against them and also urged the chief minister to crack down on such fake doctors across the state.
“There is total chaos in the medical field as the common man has got caught in the cobwebs of fake doctors, fake pathological centres and brokers,” Yadav mentioned in his letter to the chief minister, adding “just everyone associated with the medical field wants to rob the common man”.
Yadav also held a ‘People’s Court’ in his parliamentary constituency last month to seek people’s opinions on how to take on doctors “overcharging” people.
Earlier, he had also fixed a “rate chart” for consultation fees for medical practitioners and various pathological tests in his LS constituency, drawing strong protests from the medical fraternity.
However, his agitation has got strong backing from the common man who are fed up with the way fake doctors and quacks are playing with the lives of people.
In September, a one-year-old Kajal Kumari died after an unqualified doctor allegedly operated on her with a kitchen knife. The victim was a resident of Kanhariya village under Dagarua police station in eastern Bihar’s Purnia district.
Family members said the girl suffering from boils near her navel had been brought to a clinic of a local doctor for treatment but he botched up the operation leading to her death.
“The doctor told us the girl had to be operated upon soon to save her life. He operated on her with a kitchen knife, but in the process he cut her intestine. Eventually, her condition deteriorated due to excessive bleeding and she died,” the victim’s father Prakash Pandit told police and local media.
Police have arrested the doctor and sent him to jail. The accused doctor has been charged under section 304 of the Indian Penal Code which deals with punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Earlier in 2012, the police have arrested three fake doctors who botched up the sterilisation surgery on 53 women within two hours without anaesthesia and proper medicines. The poor hapless women had been operated upon at a health camp organised by a voluntary organisation, Jai Ambe Welfare Society, at Kaparfora village in eastern Bihar’s Araria district. The arrested fake doctors came out of jail later on, getting bail from the local court.