The famous poet, Amir Khusro, said of Kashmir: “If there is
heaven on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here”(
1). That heaven
and crown of India has been under siege now for over four
months (
2). Due to the war-mongering of our neighbour, and
terrorists playing their gory games for several decades, as
also our incumbent “strong” Government of India – with its
brute majority – wanting to rapidly control the situation there,
is subduing its own citizens for want of a better war-room
strategy to selectively target organised terrorists.
These punitive measures by our elected government don’t
distinguish between trained criminals and their handlers; and
an average citizen, eg a woman in labour (
3) or a terminal patient of chronic kidney disease-needing regular dialysis just to see another sunrise (
4). By deploying the blunt weapon
of severance of connectivity, it wants to isolate everybody
regardless of their needs and position. One does not need to
be an expert to understand the plight of a snake-bite victim,
if he does not reach hospital in time and succumbs to an
easily preventable death, due the blockade erected to achieve
illusory goals.
Patients and their attendants are reportedly forced to go
to Delhi as the public hospitals are running out of stocks of
essential drugs. A urologist was arrested when he tried to
raise concerns about the plight of his patients (
5). A senior
cardiologist, a former Professor at AIIMS New Delhi, was
summoned by the investigative agencies, merely on the basis
of a text message which they misunderstood, from a patient
belonging to a banned organisation (
6). The investigative
agencies withdrew only when the cardiologist explained the
correct meaning of the text message and that he was merely
doing what he was supposed to do. An average Kashmiri may
not be lucky enough to be cleared so quickly, and may face
prolonged harassment.
The authors of the IJME editorial on the lack of access to
healthcare in Kashmir in the current situation (
2) point out
that a team of doctors which wants to visit the valley is still
waiting for the approval of the Union Home Ministry. Hence,
we believe that our Government needs to either rapidly grant
that approval or explain to its citizens what stops it from
allowing the visit by health professionals offering medical care.
The Hippocratic Oath obliges us to save lives regardless of the
status or other characteristics of a patient. And when scores of
our patients are suffering, how can we ignore their collective
plight? All of us want lasting/ enduring peace, harmony,
coexistence, inside and even outside our borders, but in the
process no innocent should suffer.
This land of Buddha, Ashok and Akbar has been a continuous
source for teaching the philosophy of non-violence and unity-in-diversity to the world for centuries. Today, we need to follow
the path shown by them to walk through the present mist. For
Mahatma Gandhi, the purity of means was as important as the
ends sought to be achieved. On the occasion of his 150th birth
anniversary, when our popular Prime Minister has written an
editorial in his memory in The New York Times (
7), we need to
remember his message and follow his teachings, not only in
our intentions but also in our actions.
Sudhir Kumar Verma (sudhirkgmu@gmail.com), Associate
Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, King George’s Medical
University, Chowk, Lucknow, UP INDIA;
Nitu Nigam (nigamnitu@
gmail.com), Assistant Professor, Cytogenetics Unit, (CFAR), King
George’s Medical University, Chowk, Lucknow, UP, INDIA;
Harish Gupta (mdkgmc@gmail.com), Associate Professor, Department
of Internal Medicine, King George’s Medical University, Chowk, Lucknow, UP 226 003 INDIA