The Partial Protest at Medical Colleges in Haryana: A Witness Story to the Democracy lovers
How do Politicians kill a protest in India? Do you want to know? You must read it, especially if you are a democracy lover.
My name is Harsh Kumar. I am a medical student at KCGMC, Karnal. I am a victim among 2000 others influenced by the Haryana Government MBBS Bond policy. This policy was introduced in 2020.
Haryana Government's MBBS Bond Policy 2020 {Main Points}:
1. Student has to work for 7 years after the study/pay ₹40,00,000.(~$48000)
2. The policy can have modifications from time to time.
3. You can pay the full fee i.e., ₹40,00,000 in lumpsum also.The policy was similar for the students who got admission in 2021. So, the next batch (2021) also did the same. They also gained access similarly.
Something changed when the students of the 2022 batch wanted to get admission. They introduced an amendment to the policy in the year 2022. They were asking for money beforehand. It will be in the Government’s bank account for the next 12 years.
⚠️Paying ₹40,00,000 (~$48000) was impossible for ~90% of students. Most of the students were from the middle class. It generated a spark for a protest. There is a total of five medical colleges in Haryana state. The students of all four medical colleges started to protest against the policy.
It was 1st November 2020 when the protest started. Students of batches 2020 and 2021 were the initiators. They started it.
The Government immediately revoked the policy of asking the money in a bank account. They came up with a new thing: ‘Bond cum Loan Agreement’. They were taking bank guarantees instead. So, the strike continued…
There were four centres of the strike:-
- PGIMS Rohtak (Epicentre)
- KCGMC Karnal (Next Epicentre)
- BPS GMC Khanpur
- SHKM GMC Nuh
- SABV GMC Chhainsa (Minor centre)
Meanwhile, RDA (Resident Doctor Association) Rohtak jumped into the strike. RDA is an association of senior doctors. I don’t remember the exact date, but it was just after an action was taken against the students at PGIMS Rohtak. You may read about that event in this news article:-
We found something weird after the RDA involvement. RDA was taking the strike even more seriously than the students of batches 2020, 2021 and 2022. Meanwhile, an organisation gained attention. Its name was HMSA (Haryana Medical Student Association). We got groups on WhatsApp to join. The groups were based on the districts. The students were classified based on where they came from.
Three rounds of talks with the Chief Minister of Haryana, Manohar Lal take place. Something crazy happened after the last meeting on 30 November. Something uncommon has happened. The two leaders of PGIMS had a quarrel with the RDA. The RDA immediately took it’s strike back. The behaviour of the leaders from PGIMS changed. They denied the policy in front of media and applauded the policy in the University meetings.
This behaviour was so strange. They were asking to call off the strike because they were satisfied with the policy. Eventually, leaders from three main colleges agreed with the thing. The only one was KCGMC Karnal which always wanted to fight till the roll-back of the policy. KCGMC believed in a simple thing-
Why should an unnecessary policy exist? There isn’t any objective of this policy.
I think that money is the key factor that changed the behaviour of leaders from PGIMS. The new Gazette came on December 21, 2022. Due to the pressure from all three colleges KCGMC had to accept the decision to take the strike back. The students of KCGMC wanted to fight for the complete roll-back of the policy. They had a vision to roll back the policy. This vision can not be fulfilled because the leaders from PGIMS got Government money from the back door. Your protest can be next sufferer of this strategy.
LESSON:-
1. Strike must never be operated in hands of a couple of person.
2. Follwers must be silent observers. It is their duty to look upon the actions
of the leaders of the strike.Strike has been officially called off on 24 December, 2022. It brings a joy that we got something. It also brings a despair that we didn’t get everything. Our goal has been shifted from where we started to what we got.
Money can change your strike goals. It can change the highly determined people. That’ the nature of money. I lose the answer again. You can buy highly determined people with the money. Through this long-lasting article I, Harsh Kumar criticises the two PGIMS leaders. KCGMC fought till the last. I believe that KCGMC is the real hero of the story. Tell me in the comments what do you think.
A last thing that I understood after looking at the whole scenario. The HMSA wanted to be biggest medical student association. The president of this association will have power equivalent to Health Minister of Haryana. I thing that project HMSA can not be completed due to Government money and internal conflicts.
In the end, I am having some questions for you and myself also-
- Can money change the behavior of the people?
- Why did you never heard of this 54 days long strike? Was it because the Indian media has become a Godi Media?
- Was this strike only to make a powerful RDA whose president will be having power equivalent to the Health minister of Haryana?
- Was it a successful strike?
- What could have been there possible that we had not done? (only in the management). The leaders were expressing their personal views as the view of whole PGIMS.
Tell me in the comments.
Strike should operate like a company with internal democracy like in the biggest democracy of the world.
I don’t earn money from the medium partner program. Did you find this article interesting? If yes, do you have a dollar by chance?
