Medicos in Kerala oppose LDF swearing-in ceremony with 500 participants

Students’ unions of medical colleges in Kozhikode, Thrissur and Ernakulam have sent letters to the office of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan

Students of at least three government medical colleges in Kerala have urged Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to drop the plan to have 500 participants at the swearing-in ceremony of the second consecutive term of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government slated for Thursday.

The students’ unions of the medical colleges in Kozhikode, Thrissur and Ernakulam have sent letters to the CM’s office.

The students’ union of Government Medical College, Kozhikode, pointed out that “500 is indeed a big number” at a time when the people are staring at a pandemic. The medicos said that they were shocked to see such a ceremony being held at a place where a triple lockdown had been in force to contain COVID-19.

Ordinary citizens are now being asked to follow the protocol and violators are facing the music. However, it looks like these restrictions are not applicable to the ruling class. There is a possibility of the participants becoming spreaders of the infection to the people. The union urged the authorities to have an online swearing-in ceremony, they said.

Functionaries of the students union of Government Medical College, Thrissur, said that Thiruvananthpuram had the highest fatality rate for COVID-19 and the second highest number of positive cases. Though the authorities are insisting on vaccination certificates and COVID-19 negative lab test reports for the participants, these were not enough to avoid the spread, the pointed out.

Demoralising move

The proposed swearing-in ceremony would demoralise the health workers and other front-line warriors who had been fighting to contain the pandemic. They wondered what message it would send to the ordinary people who have lost their jobs, those who could not see their dear ones for the last time and people who could not attend the weddings of their kith and kin.

Meanwhile, the students’ union of Government Medical College, Ernakulam, said in its letter that the government should have thought about the workload and stress that the front-line workers were experiencing for the past one-and-a-half years.

Nobody knows how many people amongst us are carriers of the virus. The plan to hold the swearing-in ceremony like this would create disaffection in the minds of the people, they said. The union has urged the authorities to limit the number of participants to 100.

Source: Read Full Article