Protests by members of the medical fraternity in West Bengal over the rape and murder of a junior doctor in the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata continued on Friday, which happened to be the 172nd birth anniversary of the founder of the same hospital, Radha Gobinda Kar.
He was the founder of India's as well as Asia's first nongovernment medical college, Calcutta School of Medicine, and in 1886, the same was re-named as Calcutta Medical School.
Its name was changed in 1904 to Calcutta Medical School and College of Physicians and Surgeons of Bengal on amalgamation with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Bengal.
Thereafter, in a span of a few years, the institution came into the fold of the state and eventually was renamed after the founder's name, R. G. Kar Medical College & Hospital, following his death in 1918.
On Thursday, a division bench of the apex court requested the striking representative doctors across the country to restart their duty and assured no disciplinary action would be initiated against them.
However, the protesting representatives from the medical fraternity in West Bengal, especially those attached with R.G. Kar, have maintained that they will not move away from the path of the protests till such time when a logical conclusion regarding justice for the victim doctor and punishments for the real culprits is reached at.
The protesting representatives from the medical fraternity include senior and junior doctors and medical students.
Actually, the one who reminded people of the founder's birth anniversary through a message on social media on Friday morning was the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari.
"I pay homage to famous doctor, social reformer, and philanthropist Radha Gobinda Kar on his birth anniversary. He was instrumental in founding a new medical college, the Calcutta School of Medicine in 1886, which later evolved into R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital", a message posted on the social media platform X handle of Suvendu Adhikari with a photograph of the founder attached to it, read.
