Apathy or Inability – welcome to the Democrazy!

The facts: Seven hundred medical students, disturbed by certain issues, express their desire to meet the first citizen of the country, proceed peacefully towards the Prime Minister's office, are manhandled, tear gassed and brutally assaulted by the law enforcers of the city. Some are detained in police stations, and some land up in emergency room of hospitals seeking treatment for injuries. The PMO choses to remain silent.
The residents and the students join hands and declare strike. The media takes the issue in a luke-warm fashion and plays the devil's advocate, projecting the striking doctors as the root cause of the patients' suffering. Peacefully protesting doctors in Mumbai were brutally lathicharged infront of the Governor's house. Some media channels highlighted the atrocities. The Police officials accused the students of damaging property and dismissed the issue as minor commotion. Friends, welcome to Democrazy!

Are medical students of the top five medical colleges of the country, arguably some of the best brains that the country has in the current generation? Is it justified to treat them as common men? If yes, then like everyone demands their rights and voices their opinion in form of strikes, violence and hooliganism, so they are justified in their desire to make their voice heard. If no, then was the brutal handling of the youth justified? Please consider they are not even full grown adults. A medical student is only 17 when he joins college. What message do you convey to these children when you assault them brutally, tear gas them or hit them with water canons? And for what objective?

Is our Prime Minister so unapproachable to the best minds of the nation for an issue which concerns them? How does the current government then try to identify with the masses of the nation? Is our political think tank so far away from the common man that to meet the PM our students need to face physical and mental humiliation? If the medical students are not our masses, then who is the common man?

More than 24 hours have passed after the students tried to meet the PM and were chased and beaten away. Yet the PM remains silent. No statement has been issued by the PM office regarding the issue raised or the sad turn of events. Is our Prime Minister, incapable, apathetic, indifferent or a mute spectator? Does he await orders from other sources, (divine intervention) to open his mouth and speak? Like the HRD minister, the PMO would probably offer an apology for the misbehavior meted out to the students at the hands of the law enforcing agencies when the office opens on Monday. Has this become a mockery? First you slap an individual and then two days later, sweetly apologize and then request to forget and forgive. The doctors are expected to attend to emergencies on weekends, but the PMO has no emergencies. It remains silent over the weekend. Of course it is probably a matter too trivial to respond on. Or is the PM waiting for directives on what he has to say. It is also possible that the speechwriter has taken ill and is not finding any doctor who will attend to him. The HRD Minister had comfortably said that he was unaware that students wanted to meet him, and expressed his sorrow that police had mistreated them. A similar answer could be expected from the PM and the Governor of Mumbai. If their information system is so defunct that they don't get a message from outside their gates for 24 hours, what are they sitting in office for and how are they managing the entire country?

The media focuses attention on suffering patients outside hospitals. The core issue has largely been cold-shouldered. The double standards adopted by the media are clearly evident, and they wait to capture the most emotional story to catch the prime slot for maximum viewership. God forbid if there is mortality outside the hospital, be sure that you will catch the eventuality on the news channels with the sensationalization even before the calamity has actually occurred.

The patient suffering seems to be the sole responsibility of the doctors who are on strike. They have moral, physical and emotional responsibility of all the suffering caused. The silence from the PM office is shattering. There is not even a word from the Prime Minister. Is he following what has long been our foreign policy, 'watching the situation closely'? Or is this something right out of our gynecology textbooks, 'watchful expectancy'? This is sheer mockery of the highest office in the country.

Is the faculty of medical colleges and hospitals, merely supportive or is willing to become an active participant in the whole issue? Where are the nurses, and the hospital attendants? What is their role in the issue and are they supportive or participant? The pool officers, research staff and the residents of Hospital administration, are you not doctors? Do you not wish to favor or support the reservation agitation? Why is there such deafening silence from the IITs, IIMs and other intelligentsia of the country? Does the reservation issue not affect you or bother you? United we stand divided we fall.

We are creating all the fuss when the certificate for your reserved status can be obtained in INR 1000 from any government office in Chandigarh as the news channels reported. Why don't we all approach such agents and get ourselves the certificate and thereby become eligible for the reserved quota?

We are a society that is sitting on a live fuse. Angry scuffles have become common following minor road accidents and have given birth to the phenomenon of 'Road Rage'. It will not be a surprise if 'Rang de Basanti' does not remain a mere movie to be watched in theaters, and the PMO has a serious situation to deal with if the current one is not serious enough to provoke comment.

– Ashish Goel, Senior Resident, AIIMS