MUMBAI: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Tuesday (August 18) issued a clarification on his controversial remarks on doctors saying he could never insult doctors or others in the medical fraternity, especially after their contributions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Raut said his previous statement on 'doctors' was aimed towards the World Health Organisation's role during the crisis phase and added that it was 'unnecessary politicised by some'.
"I have not insulted anybody and I especially cannot insult the doctors. The doctors, nurses, ward boys have contributed a lot during this COVID phase. My remark was in reference to WHO, wherein I meant that COVID-19 pandemic had not taken place had WHO worked efficiently. Some people are trying to play politics over it," Sanjay Raut was quoted as saying by ANI.
Raut is at the centre of a row after his reported comment that he 'never goes to a doctor as they know nothing (about their profession)'. "What does a doctor know. Whenever I need, I take medicines from a compounder," the Rajya Sabha MP had reportedly said.
Expressing displeasure over Raut's comments, the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) in a letter addressed to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, wondered whether the Shiv Sena chief shares Raut's opinion about medical professionals.
"The chief minister lauds doctors as corona warriors, but his party colleague bad mouths the same profession. Are we doing all efforts (to combat COVID-19) to listen to such insinuation?" MARD stated in the letter.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA), Maharashtra too wrote to Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Vankaih Naidu over the alleged 'derogatory statements' issued against doctors and the WHO by the Rajya Sabha MP.
"Sanjay Raut MP from Maharashtra passed some derogatory and loose comments, recently in an interview, on a Marathi Television News Channel. He said — "Doctors do not know anything. Compounders are better. I always take medicine from a compounder, never from a doctor. WHO is a useless organisation, because of WHO the coronavirus pandemic came," the IMA said in its letter to the Vice President.
On Monday, senior BJP leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis took a dim view of Raut's reported remarks on doctors, saying 'they have hurt feelings of the medical fraternity'.
