Except for title, oath read in English: Student council prez

MADURAI: The controversy over the first year students of Madurai Medical College taking the ‘Maharishi Charak Shapath’ during the initiation ceremony on Saturday, came to an end on Monday with Jothish Kumaravel, president, Students Council, Madurai Medical College, denying the accusations that the oath was read in Sanskrit, saying it was wrongly projected by the media.

Except for the title ‘Maharishi Charak Shapath’ a term in Sanskrit, the entire five-minute oath was fully read in English. If such accusation is a genuine concern, then the entire video clip covering the oath taking ceremony should have been shown to authenticate the speech he made during the ‘Freshers Day.’

Kumaravel further said that as per the circular issued by the National Medical Commission on March 31, 2022, on its official website, it clearly mentioned that reading the ‘Charak Shapath’ version of oath as optional and not compulsory. In 2019, the National Medical Commission (NMC) issued a new curriculum on ‘Competency Based Medical Education’ to be followed by students, who adopted it. Likewise, with the NMC ensuring its credibility, we the students continued to rely on its web portal, from which we have downloaded the message of the oath with its title ‘Charak Shapath.’

However, the students were dejected after a circular from the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) on Sunday, portraying them in bad light citing that the freshers took the oath in Sanskrit, the language which nobody knew and also made ‘Hippocratic oath’ compulsory for the students, he said.

More importantly, he said, “We did not know exactly and were in a state of dilemma over whether to follow the Hippocratic oath or Charak Shapath as per the guidelines of the NMC.”

There’s no proper system of regulation and he admitted that it was his mistake. The council president also added that he could have consulted with any of the professors or seniors before organising the oath taking ceremony to avoid such unnecessary controversy.

Earlier, the Students Council members met Madurai Collector S Aneesh Shekar and explained what exactly happened and requested to retain A Rathinavel, who’s relieved of the post and placed on waitlist, as Dean of Madurai Medical College, sources said.