Indian Medical Association has strongly criticised renowned medical journal The Lancet for an anti-India article published by the journal last week. In a surprising move, the medical journal had denounced India’s recent decision abrogating Article 370. The IMA has said that it is withdrawing esteem they had for The Lancet on behalf of the medical fraternity of India.
In a strongly worded letter addressed to Lancet editor-in-chief Richard Horton, IMA says it is unfortunate that a reputed medical journal like The Lancet has committed a breach of propriety by commenting on a political issue. The letter says that the action by the journal amounts to interference into an internal matter of India, and The Lancet has no locus standi on the issue of Kashmir. It also mentions that the Kashmir issue is a legacy issue left behind by the British Empire.
Indian Medical Association on behalf of the medical fraternity of India withdraws the esteem we had for the Lancet. pic.twitter.com/LbqNzjeL6O
— Indian Medical Association (@IMAIndiaOrg) August 19, 2019
IMA has accused The Lancet of reacting to an internal decision of India government in the grab of concern for the health of Kashmiris.
The letter says that the Indian Medical Association condemns the unsolicited intrusion into internal matters of India by the medical journal. It says that generations of Indians, especially doctors and medical students, will carry the unpleasant memory of this act by The Lancet.
Questioning the credibility and the malafide intention behind the editorial, the IMA has mentioned that it is withdrawing the esteem they had for The Lancet on behalf of the medical fraternity of India.
Established in 1928, Indian Medical Association is the largest association of doctors and medical students in India. The IMA is also a founder member of the World Medical Association. IMA publishes the Journal of the Indian Medical Association, which is the largest circulated indexed medical journal in the world.
The Lancet is one of the oldest peer-reviewed medical journals in the world. It is considered to be the most prestigious, and is the most well-known, general medical journal. This is not the first time they had published an anti-India article, they had done this earlier also, but that was in the field of medicine. In 2010, the journal had claimed that the New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase superbug had spread in the world due to medical tourism in India, which was denied by the Indian government. Despite the drug-resistant bacteria detected in several countries, it was named after New Delhi, causing allegations that it was part of an anti-India campaign by MNCs.
