RG Kar tragedy: Medical fraternity's protests continue on hospital founder's birth anniversary

Kolkata, Aug 23 (IANS) Protests by representatives of West Bengal's medical fraternity against the rape and murder of a junior doctor at the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata continued on Friday on 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 non-government medical college, Calcutta School of Medicine, and, in 1886, the same was renamed Calcutta Medical School.

In 1904, its name was changed to Calcutta Medical School and College of Physicians and Surgeons of Bengal after amalgamating with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Bengal.

Subsequently, over the years, the institution became a state-run entity and ultimately was rechristened after the name of the founder R. G. Kar Medical College & Hospital after his demise in 1918.

On Thursday, a division bench of the Supreme Court asked the protesting representative doctors throughout the country to resume their duty and also assured no disciplinary action would be taken against them.

However, the protesting representatives of the medical fraternity in West Bengal, especially the ones attached with R.G. Kar have maintained that they will not move away from the path of the protests till the time 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.

In fact, the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari has reminded people about the birth anniversary of the founder through a social media message made on Friday morning.

"I pay my respects to renowned doctor, social reformer and philanthropist Radha Gobinda Kar on his birth anniversary. He established a new medical college; the Calcutta School of Medicine in 1886 which eventually transformed into the R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital," read a message posted on social media platform X of Suvendu Adhikari with a photograph of the founder attached to it.