On Dr RG Kar’s birth anniv, RG Kar Med Col students vow to keep fighting for their rights
Times of India | 24 August 2024
Kolkata: Junior doctors of RG Kar Medical College & Hospital, protesting against systemic ills and seeking justice for the rape-murder of the PGT, pledged to continue their fight on the birth anniversary of the institute’s founder, doctor Radha Gobinda Kar, on Friday. Doctors, along with several alumni, garlanded Kar’s bust at the Platinum Jubilee building and a photograph of the doctor at the protest site.
“Kar, born on Aug 23, 1850, had founded the hospital and ran it during the severely oppressive period of British rule when basic rights were not granted. We are going through a similar period that has tarnished the image of the hospital and are thus fighting to come out of the oppressive rule of the administration,” said Ayan Kanti Bala, a MBBS final-year student.
Another doctor, Sourav Dasgupta, who passed out of the hospital last year said Kar had done a daring task by constructing the hospital. “At that time, the private medical school wasn’t built for business purposes but with a plan to provide western medical education. Even today, the same thing has happened. Our “we want justice” slogan has evolved into the “the world wants justice” movement. The boldness he demonstrated then inspires us to keep fighting and strive to restore the glory of the hospital he started,” Dasgupta said.
The hospital was set up in 1886 as an independent non-govt medical college and named Calcutta School of Medicine after Kar returned from England. One of the five medical colleges teaching undergraduate courses in Kolkata, the institute was renamed after RG Kar in 1948, a year after India’s independence.
Speaking to TOI, Partha Kar, a fourth-generation descendant of Kar, said even the family is angry at the hospital administration and the tormentors of the woman for tarnishing the hospital’s name and maligning the name of the doctor after whom it is named.
“The incident left us shocked and over the last week, we have attended multiple protest marches, seeking justice for the victim as well as for the hospital,” said Partha, a school teacher who lives in the doctor’s ancestral house in Howrah’s Betore. Partha’s great-grandfather was the brother of RG Kar.
RG Kar shifted to Shyambazar while studying in Hare School but continued to visit relatives in Betore.
“He was childless and, before death, he donated all his property in north Kolkata to charity. We still visit the hospital on his death anniversary and have at least three doctors in the family who have passed out from the institution,” said Partha.