The Hindu Business Line : <I>Doctors' strike </I>

Now that the Supreme Court is seized of the issue of reservation, one hopes that by the time this column appears, the striking doctors and medical students would have called off the strike which had put at risk the lives of the ill and the ailing who were in desperate need of their services. Indeed, they would need to work harder to restore public confidence in their spirit of public service and commitment to the solemn obligations of their profession.

From the beginning, the agitation had been marked by some intriguing features. For one thing, those in the non-medical professions, other than sporadically in some IITs, had kept themselves out of it. Why should the medicos think that they alone are the custodians of merit?

For another, to the shock and dismay of the people at large, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) had been egging them on with its belligerent statements unbecoming of the practitioners of perhaps the noblest profession. It will take a long time for the public to get over these unpleasant memories, reminiscent of the disruptive showdowns witnessed in industrial establishments.

Also, the agitation was confined to some of the Northern States; the rest of India, particularly the South, was calm, despite all the whipping up of passions that the IMA indulged in, putting even fiery trade unions to shade.

The proper thing for any section of opinion, especially the purportedly well-educated professional class, would have been to approach the issue in a constructive manner with a view to exploring ways of harmonising social equity with merit. The elders of the various professions should at least now assert themselves and ensure that the errant hotheads return to the path of sanity, and that the kind of ugly scenes enacted do not recur in the future. Heads of institutions such as AIIMS, IIMs and IITs should also stop stonewalling and willingly come forward to help find an amicable solution in a spirit of accommodation.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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