Daily Hindu Editorials

💥There must be a thorough inquiry into the violence over Ram Navami processions It has taken a voice of humanity to call out the manufactured nature of the political blame game around the communal clashes over Ram Navami processions in West Bengal and Bihar. In Asansol, the imam of a mosque who lost his teenage son to the clashes this week announced that should anyone carry out a retaliatory attack, he would leave town. At least four persons have died in the Raniganj-Asansol belt in West Bengal’s Paschim Bardhaman district after a procession turned violent. The area remains tense, Internet services are limited and prohibitory orders are in place. It is a shame that a sitting Union Minister, Babul Supriyo, who represents Asansol in the Lok Sabha, not just tried to defy the local administration, but also uttered inflammatory comments. Accounts about what ignited the clashes vary, and it would be best to await the findings of the official inquiry. But it is a reason for disquiet th...

💥Amendments to the National Medical Council Bill don’t go far enough to address concerns The Union Cabinet this week approved six out of the dozens of changes to the contentious National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill that were suggested by a Parliamentary Standing Committee earlier this month. These changes address some of the loudest criticisms of the Bill. Among them, the final year MBBS exam is now merged with an exit exam for doctors, and a contentious bridge course for AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Homeopathy) practitioners has been axed. Health-care experts had recommended other modifications, which the Cabinet ignored. For example, despite the Cabinet’s amendments, the NMC, the regulatory body that will replace the Medical Council of India, will be heavily controlled by the government. Its members are to be picked by a search committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary, while the Central government is to be the appellate body for those aggrieved by t...