IMA Headquarters retorted to Haryana’s Health Minister Sri Anil Vij’s statement on 04.02.2023 that Haryana MBBS students will be taught Ayurveda for one year. In terms of Article 246 of the Constitution of India List of Subjects on which respective legislative forums can legislate is prescribed in Seventh Schedule appended to it. As such, list-I in the said Schedule includes entries pertaining to ‘Central List’ on which Parliament alone can legislate. List-III titled ‘State List’ includes entries on which only State Legislature can legislate, however, List-II titled ‘Concurrent List’ includes the subjects on which both Parliament as well as State can legislate. In the year 1976 through 42nd Amendment the Five Subjects included in Central List were transferred to Concurrent List in which Education including Medical and Technical Education was transferred to concurrent list. Entry No. 25 in Concurrent List covers Education including Technical Education and Universities subject to the riders incorporated vide Entries No. 63, 64, 65 and 66 in the Central List in the Seventh Schedule.
In the teeth of the aforesaid constitutional provisions the regulation of medical education is governed through the Parliamentary enactment titled ‘National Medical Commission Act, 2019’ as of now upon repealing of Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 which was in vogue till then.
As such, no state Government is in any manner entitled to medal with medical education of the country on its own as education including medical education is not a subject included in the ‘State List’ in the Seventh Schedule appended to the Constitution of India. Resultantly, the said statement of the Minister is unconstitutional, unfortunate, and unwarranted. IMA opposes Mixopathy in all its forms. Hybridization of medical education to bring out compromised doctors will backfire on the nation and put its health care delivery system into total peril. IMA regards Ayurveda as our ancient medicine and would prefer to preserve its tenets and traditions in its purest form. Misguided adventures will be beaten back by IMA, the guardian of the modern medical profession. Mixopathy its anti-people and will hamper the Health of the nation.
However IMA is pained to note that :-
- NationalEducational Policy has declared medical pluralism as the policy. To implement the same it has proposed to abolish dedicated Health universities and has provided for lateral entry and lateral exit in medical courses.
- TheNITI Aayog has four committees working on integrating all systems of medicine. They are in an advanced stage of recommendations of how to integrate medical education, practice, research and public health.
Modern Medicine is evidence based. Double Blind Control studies and replicability in unbiased settings elsewhere are the sine qua non of modern medicine. It is impossible to mix different systems of medicine without catastrophic fallout on patient care and safety. The contradictions are self-evident.
China is the only country which practises integrative medicine. China is certainly not our model in Healthcare. Due to integration CTM (Chinese traditional medicine) has been decimated and is no longer practised in its pure form. Safeguarding the purity and legacy of Ayurveda will enrich our traditional medicine. Mixing of systems will ring the death knell of Ayurveda. The loss of lives and suffering due to this unscientific mixing will be phenomenal. Healthcare in India will be set back by a century.
The harm that will befall the nation due to mixing of systems will be profound. It is an anti people policy and unfortunately this has not caught the imagination of the people. All MBBS doctors will be from Integrative medicine by 2030 . IMA appeals to people to understand the impact of this ill advised decision. IMA is determined to resist this mixing of systems and expects to create public opinion against this.
