Doctors up in arms against Sanjay Raut

The doctors in Maharashtra are up in arms against Shiv Sena and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut for his comments on the medical profession and the World Health Organisation.

"Doctors do not know anything....Compounders are better....I always take medicine from a compounder, never from a doctor....WHO is a useless organisation. Because of WHO, the Covid-19 pandemic happened," Raut had told a Marathi channel, according to a statement by Indian Medical Association -- Maharashtra.

Track live updates on coronavirus here

In a state executive meeting of IMA-Maharashtra, held on Sunday, a resolution condemning these comments was passed unanimously.
The representatives of all the 216 branches of IMA-Maharashtra demanded that he take back his words and tender an apology to the medical community.

IMA-Maharashtra president Dr Avinash Bhondwe and honorary state secretary Dr Pankaj Bandarkar, in a statement, said that 3 lakh doctors in the state, are working incessantly during the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The doctors all over the state have been working day and night, to save the lives of the citizens of Maharashtra as a duty towards humanity and with the utmost social commitment. About 50 doctors have lost their lives fighting Covid-19," they said.

The IMA-Maharashtra has complained to Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
They have also written to Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu as Raut is a Rajya Sabha member.

"Such disparaging, disrespectful and dishonoring comments by a respectable leader, a journalist and Rajya Sabha MP have hurt the feelings of the doctors in Maharashtra. These slighting and uncomplimentary remarks have damaged the morale of the doctors who are fighting with the Covid-19 for more than four and half months till today," the doctors' professional body said.

"Nowadays, many ministers, political leaders, social workers are abusing and cursing doctors at large for no reason. To criticize the doctors on social media with demeaning and humiliating language has become trend these days," the statement read.