BHOPAL: Senior doctors in the city say that any content should be introduced into the syllabus for the MBBS course only if it is relevant to medical science. Whether it is a personality or a philosophy, it should have some meaning, some usefulness for the future doctors.
The state government has decided to include the life and works of Jan Sangh founder Deendayal Upadhyay and RSS founder Dr KB Hedgewar in the Foundation Course for first year MBBS students in the state. The government has also decided to teach the students about the ancient master of Ayurveda Charak, the ancient surgeon Sushustra, Swami Vivekananda and Dr BR Ambedkar.
Dean, People’s Medical College, Dr Anil Dixit says that under medical ethics, currently, the students are basically taught about how to behave with the patients. “We also teach them about Sushru and scientists like Ronald Ross who contributed to the advancement of medical science,” he said. He said that political philosophers were not in the syllabus of medical courses. “What we teach to our students is decided by the National Medical Council and the Directorate of Medical Education of the state government,” he said.
Psychiatrist Dr RN Sahu says that all students, and in fact all persons, should know about the leaders and great men who contributed to the development of the nation. “I am not taking any names but the medical students should know about Gandhi, Nehru and others,” he said. Dr Sahu says that if we don’t have knowledge about the great personalities of India, we will go farther from our roots and become Westernised. “When we know about Hippocrates, why should we not know about the great Indians,” he said.
Internal Medicine Specialist Dr HS Trivedi says that he does know about Charak and Sushrut but has no idea about Dr Hedgewar and Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay. "Please don't drag me into politics," he said when asked whether Hedgewar and Upadhyaya had any relevance for medical students.
Psychiatrist Dr Ruma Bhattacharya says knowledge never harms and it is always good to learn as much as we can. But the knowledge should be relevant to the work one is doing or would do in the future. “Learning irrelevant things has side-effects, which should better be avoided,” she said.
