New Delhi
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Sunday criticised the National Medical Commission’s (NMC) move to modify its logo that has an image of a Hindu god, saying the country’s top medical regulator should adopt a religion-neutral logo.
“The NMC has adopted a new logo with religious depiction contained therein. The new logo of the NMC is in contradiction with our fundamental values as doctors. It is not in conformity with the oath and duty of doctors, which is not towards any particular religion. Such a logo is also inconsistent with the dignity and decorum of an institution such as the NMC. In a country such as ours, unity in diversity is a beautiful characteristic of our nation. The unity in diversity is the part of most fundamental values in our society,” said IMA in a statement.
NMC recently modified its official logo, replacing the word “India’ with “Bharat” and adding a colour image of the god of Ayurveda, Dhanwantari. The move sparked a controversy with critics saying the country’s top medical regulator shouldn’t have used image of a religious figure. But NMC defended itself, saying that a black-and-white sketch of Dhanwantari was already part of its old logo, and in the modified logo, colour was added to the image.
“The image of Dhanwantari was already in the logo but in the form of a black and white line diagram. All members unanimously decided that colour should be added to the image as black and white image was not printable. When NMC was formed, it was decided then to use Dhanwantari’s image in the logo,” BN Gangadhar, the officiating chairman of NMC, said earlier.
{{/usCountry}}“The image of Dhanwantari was already in the logo but in the form of a black and white line diagram. All members unanimously decided that colour should be added to the image as black and white image was not printable. When NMC was formed, it was decided then to use Dhanwantari’s image in the logo,” BN Gangadhar, the officiating chairman of NMC, said earlier.
{{/usCountry}}IMA, however, said the logo should be religion neutral.
“The logo of any national institution ought to capture the aspirations of all our citizens in an equal manner and by remaining neutral in all respects thereby eliminating any possibility of any part / section of the society feeling aggrieved in any manner. The IMA is constrained / compelled to express its strong objection and disapproval of the new logo adopted by the NMC, which is contrary to our fundamental ethos and values carried on for centuries by our great nation,” read the statement.
“The IMA calls upon the NMC to take corrective steps to adopt a logo which does not contradict the oath and duty of doctors, towards all our citizens with complete neutrality especially in shunning any attempt to connect and / or identify the institution such as NMC with any particular religion”