An opposition Trinamool Congress member on Friday drew upon the epic Mahabharata to equate the Homoeopathy Council’s seven-member Board of Governors with the character ‘Gandhari’, saying the government had dissolved elected bodies everywhere in favour of nominated structures. Santanu Sen (TMC) accused the government of promoting quackery and playing with the country’s health system and alleged that the ‘seven Gandharis’ are taking instructions from ‘Dhritarashtra’ who is sitting somewhere else.
‘Gandhari’ was a character in ‘Mahabharata’ and was married to the blind king ‘Dhritarashtra’ of Hastinapura, and the mother of a hundred sons ‘Kauravas’, who decided to blindfold herself. Sen is the past president of the Indian Medical Association when the National Medical Commission Bill, replacing the MCI was passed by Parliament.
“In history I have seen there was only one Dhritarashtra and one Gandhari who were sufficient enough to win the Gurukul. But nowadays we are seeing everywhere in this government, which is undemocratic and resorting to privatisation and spoiling the health system. Everywhere they are putting seven Gandharis. “I must not say that our health minister, who belongs to our own profession, is a Dhritarashtra. But, I’m sure Dhritarashtra is sitting somewhere else and giving the signal to ruin the entire health of the country,” he said in Rajya Sabha. He was participating in the debate on ‘The homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and ‘The Indian Medicine Central Council (Amendment) Bill, 2020, seeking extension of the Board of Governors.
The TMC member said the National Medical Commission has been formed but it is not functioning. Sen said only a chairman is sitting in the National Medical Commission and has appointed seven ‘Gandharis’ and are ‘practically doing nothing’.
“Why NMC has not yet been implemented properly, even after a gazette notification,” he said. “I think no extension should be given to this Board of Governors because practically they are doing nothing.
“Please counter politics, play religious card, please speak up during pandemic, we have no problem, but please do not play with the health of the country,” Sen said. The Trinamool Congress leader charged that this government is in a mood to “ruin” all ancient systems of medicines and “promote quackery” which is obvious by the National Education Policy, 2020, where it is clearly mentioned that after 2030 there will be no existence of any individual system of medicine in the country, which the Indian Medical Association has been opposing since the beginning.
“Everywhere this government is in a mood to dissolve the elected body,” he said, adding that as in the Homoeopathy Council, which was an elected body and was running the system every smoothly as they formed nearly 285 colleges. “But, unfortunately, when they were running democratically and had 50 different representatives from different states, they simply dissolved this elected body and they formed a Board of Governors of seven members – Seven Gandharis,” he alleged. He said the Indian Homoeopathic system is very much popular in West Bengal, but there is no representative from the state.
There is no election or transparency in the Board of Governors of Homoeopathy Council, he also alleged. “They are indirectly promoting quackery.They are also indirectly promoting private medical colleges,” he alleged.
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