CHAPTER XI FOUNDATION OF THE NATIONAL MEDICOS ORGANISATION (NMO) (1977)

Chapter XI

Foundation of the

national MEDICOS ORGANISATION (NMO)

(1977)

            After coming out of the jail, I had a bitter experience of political leaders who only proved to be the birds of the same feather on the issue of the closing down of the capitation-fee based medical colleges. All politicians, be of the Janata Party, the Congress or even the Communists, had the same colour. Providing admission to their children or wards without capitation-fee obliged many of them. A large number of students admitted to such colleges were wards of influential guardians. They fought their battle like life and death. Even a personality like J. P. could not support providing justice to the students of the Govt. medical colleges, say, few extra marks for their PMT examination’s superiority in merit. Instead, the capitation-fee was abolished but the colleges were taken over by the Govt. benefiting the students and teachers of private medical colleges.

            I had disillusionment from the politics in the jail itself, even senior workers of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) did not come out in our support (though later on, they led unsuccessfully such an agitation in Karnataka) as they had workers in non-governmental medical colleges as well. While we were in jail, none of them came to see us.

            I had written a letter to Ma. M. G. Deoji, the then Organiser of the Bihar* State of the RSS in deep sorrow that had I been at Delhi or Patna, or Arun Jaitley / Sushil Modi were involved such negligence would not have happened. It has been my old notion that we are capitalists at least in one sense that we listen to voices prevailing in the capitals only. Deoji has been working in Bihar* since 1940 and I think though a Marathi, he has travelled to every nook and corner of Bihar*, more than any Bihari**. He has known me since my childhood. He told me that since it was a students’ problem, he had referred my letter to Govindacharya of the ABVP.

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* Including Jharkhand

** or  Jharkhandi

            On the day of Kunwar Singh Victory Day (23rd April) in 1976, I had seen Deoji on the nearby road passing through my college and he had informed me that Dr. Shrikant Shiledar and Dr. (Mrs.) Shilpa Shiledar had left for Nagpur as the Vanvasi Kalyan Kendra Hospital, Lohardaga had also been sealed by the Govt. due to its connections with the Sangh.

            In that background, I was thinking in those days as to what could be done for the medical community. Only after five days of the withdrawal of the agitation, Govindacharya visited Darbhanga on the 8th August 1977, on Rabindra Smriti Divas. While seeing him off at the station, I could get a few minutes to explain to him the distinctive problems of medicos and suggested that if something like the Medical Chhatra Parishad was formed we could sort out our problems instead of fighting amongst ourselves and we could also provide a platform for wider social service so as to help the Vanvasi Kalyan Kendra, with medical man-power. He told me to write down these ideas and to send them to him so that they could discuss in the Central Committee Meeting to be held at Bombay, probably on 25th August.

            I was thinking over the proposal and on the weekend, I went to my ancestral village, Samaul (in Madhubani district). On Sunday, the 14th August, 1977, it occurred to me that now it would be too late, if I did not send my ideas for discussion and I woke up after post-lunch nap and scribbled on paper, the manifesto entitled Seva Hi Dharmah (Service is Religion), given in original in Hindi in the chapter XXVII - epilogue (V)-(A), pg. nos. 266-277, with the aims and the organisational nature of the proposed medical organisation.

            I posted the draft to him on 19th August and copies of the same to Ma. Eknath Ranade, Kanyakumari and Ma. Bala Saheb Deoras, Nagpur on 20th August. I had been very much impressed by Eknathji’s address at Ranchi on 28.4.1973 and was willing to have his guidance for the proposed organisation, since he had been widely acclaimed as the founder of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial. Though, he could not guide us, I, as ‘Eklavya’, worked on the few principles he had enunciated at Ranchi :

^uk{kja  ea=jfgra u ewye~ vukS"k/ke~A

v;ksX;% iq:"k% ukfLr] ;kstd% r= nqyZHke~AA*

(There is no letter which cannot be used in a mantra, no vegetable which cannot be used as a medicine, no man is worthless, what is needed is a good organiser).

            I referred to Ma. Eknath Ranade with this shloka when I had the occasion to introduce the NMO, in the First Conference at Patna on 30.3.1980.

              The Central Meeting of the ABVP at Bombay approved the ideas outlined in my dispatch to them. On October 3, 1977, in the Bihar* State Conference of the ABVP at Darbhanga, the assembled medicos (from Darbhanga. Patna and Muzaffarpur) had a meeting in the presence of Govindacharya, where I again pushed my ideas. Later Govindji told me to come to join the 23rd National Conference of the ABVP at Varanasi scheduled from Nov. 4 to 6, if I was serious with my ideas. I was also nominated a member of the Bihar* State Executive Committee of the ABVP, though I was not even its primary member. The local Divisional Organiser of the Sangh, Jiveshwar Mishra consented and withdrew his proposal for me to work as Nagar Bauddhik Pramukh.

            I also thought that it was an important work and therefore I left for Varanasi, forgoing extra classes of Pathology and Histopathology while final examination was also at hand.  On the way, at Patna, I heard the historic appreciation by J. P. for the Sangh while he was addressing its training camp.

            In technical terms, I had gone abroad (Nepal’s Biratanagar, only a few km from Forbesganj) and outside the state (coastal Jagannathpuri) but Varanasi was the biggest city I had seen so far. People say it is on the trishul of  Lord Shiva. I think Kashi is the religious-centre-capital of the motherland, spread and bounded triangularly from the points of Kashmir, Kamrup and Kanyakumari.

            I also witnessed for the first time such a huge gathering of youth, visited the shrines and places of Varanasi and even talked for the first time with some French tourists speaking in their language. But, I did not know that God had ordained me to come to Kashi where he was to use me as a paper or a pen to write a new chapter in the medical history of the land, in the city of the legendary Dhanwantari Himself.

            But it was not so easy. I met Govindji and asked him as to what he had planned. He in reply said that as he was too busy in the management, Mahesh Sharma (General Secretary), programme in-charge of the conference, should be contacted and he alone could convene a meeting of the medicos. My friend from Muzaffarpur, Om Prakash Singh, was an old ABVP activist and he could procure the permission for the meeting and its announcement in that large tent-township.

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* Including Jharkhand

  

            I was also told that a senior worker, Laxmi Kant Bhala would be in the meeting who later asked me to address the meeting myself due to his busy schedule. Initially the organising secretary of the ABVP, Bihar*, Chandreshwarji had assured me that in case nobody came up; he would be joining our meeting.

            I thought, only an announcement might not work and so I should meet medicos personally from tent to tent. Ajay Jindal of Amritsar took keen interest in canvassing with me. Later, I learnt, medicos of Amritsar had also such ideas already in their minds for such a separate organisation.

            On the morning of the 5th Nov., there was the address by Prof. Rajendra Singh, in a nearby shakha. Bhauraoji was also present there. I knew them personally. After the shakha was over, I told Bhauraoji about the proposed organisation and requested him to come to our meeting in the afternoon. He was happy to know about the intention of a service-oriented medical organisation but expressed his inability to attend the meeting owing to some prior engagements.

            He, however, assured me that he would be meeting us in future and suggested to me to speak to Ma. Madan Das, the National Organising Secretary of the ABVP. I did not know at that time the significance of this post (I had come for the first time in any such conference and as such was not well-versed with it). Moreover, I was thinking that I had already talked to the National President, Bal Apte and General Secretary, Mahesh Sharma. I could hear  Ma. Madan Das in the concluding session only. I was pleased to listen to his appeal for starting the change from ‘I’. Subsequently we were quite friendly.

            I had already brought a few blank un-ruled copybooks for the use of the organisation. Since the time allotted to us for our meeting was only 30 minutes, I told Ashok Kr. Shrivastava of Patna, to cut papers in small pieces for identity slips. He wrote: name, class, college, roll no, address for correspondence and permanent address, putting blanks therein to be filled up by the attending medicos.

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* Including Jharkhand

  

            I requested Dr. Kripa Shankar, a paediatrician of Varanasi (who had passed from the Darbhanga Medical College) and  who was in-charge of  the dispensary for that conference, to preside over that meeting. Identity slips were distributed (5 min.); the preface and aims of the proposed organisation were put up by me (10 min.); the medicos were asked to submit the names they suggested for the organisation (5 min.); active members’ names for the executive committee were asked (5 min.); a few queries and the address of the president (10 min); totaling 30 minutes. No Sooner had the time elapsed, I received a slip from Mahavir Dutt Giri that press conference was to be held there and so     I should finish in time.

            This is the history of those 30 minutes. Those who were present there themselves were probably unaware of the fact that they were creating a history. Since the time was short, I could not reply to the last question from a friend from Bihar whom I had asked to talk in the tent as he was from my state. After coming to Darbhanga, I wrote to him, in the care of the address of a known boy (since the medicos of Ranchi had not deposited their identity slips). Later, in 1981, he became the Secretary of the NMO but it took much time to convince that friend Mrityunjoyji. Such things were inevitable in such a short meeting.

            The names of the members attending the meeting institution/place-wise, were:

Varanasi -  Dr. P. N. Gupta, Dr. Kripa Shankar;

DMC,Darbhanga -- Dhanakar Thakur;

ANMMC, Gaya --  Sunil Kr. Singh;

PMC, Dhanbad -- Gopal Krishna Nair;

SKMC, Muzaffarpur --   Om Prakash Singh;

NMC, Patna --   Arun Kr. Singh;

PMC, Patna --  Ashok Kr. Shrivastava;

RMC, Ranchi --  Dr. Shanti Prakash, Mrityunjoy Kr.;

BSMC, Bankura --  Subhash Sarkar, Badal Asru Ghata;

GMC, Guwahati --   Nayan Jyoti Das, Lohit Baishya, Uday Kr. Sharma;

Pt. BDSPGIMS, Rohtak --  Bhim Sain Sharma, Sushil Saini;

GMC, Amritsar--  Ajay Jindal, Ashwani Sharma, Bharat;

GMC, Bhopal -- Kuldeep Saxena, Rajendra Agrawal;

GRMC, Gwalior --  Dr. Vishwas Sapre, Dr. Ravindra  Arora, Vinod Gupta;

BJMC, Ahmadabad--   Manilal O. Chhotaliya;

MPSMC, Jamnagar --  Bhaumik V. Upadhyay, Bhavna I. Mehta ;

GMC, Nagpur --  Dhananjay V. Chati;

OMC, Hyderabad -  M. Pulla Reddy, P. Raghava Reddy,

J. Nag Manohar, N.G. Nirmala , Deepika Siri, N.G. Geetha;

BMC, Bangalore --  Ram Das Mallya;

G. D. C. & H. (Govt. Dental College & Hospital), Hyderabad  --  A. Surendar.

             So, apart from Varanasi, we were from 18 medical colleges, and one dental college. Actual attendance was a few more than 37 as enumerated above and I am unable to recollect them.

            There were some medicos from Ayurveda and Homeopathy as well and in fact, we took them initially in the organisation, but the very next day, they demanded equal representation in all bodies and I found myself not in a position to satisfy them and later on with the advice of Chandreshwarji, I dropped the idea of one single organisation for all pathys.

            I had already mentioned in my first draft that we should have separate organisations in Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Agriculture and Veterinary and Engineering; to this later, I liked to add Accountancy and Management. I also advised some of the inquisitive engineering students who were observing our meeting to organise themselves like us.

            Then we had the problem of finally selecting a name for the organisation. I had talks with Maheshji also who had told me to have some attractive name, maybe in English. I along with  Om  Prakash Singh and Ravindra Keshari (a very senior worker of the ABVP, Bihar*) went through the collected slips of the proposed names. There were many, both in Hindi and in English.

            We decided in favour of English, as also due to the non-availability of a single word in Hindi substituting the word medicos as in English which meant to include a medical practitioner plus a medical student and more so for the simplicity in the use of the word medico to facilitate the working of a newly formed organisation.

            Our final issue was to find out   the best name from amongst the three : National Medicos Association/Organisation/Council.

            As ‘Association’ was simulating with the IMA and ‘Council’  with the MCI, we opted for-         

            NATIONAL MEDICOS ORGANISATION (NMO).

            Thus  the NMO was born as if an Indian edition of the WHO to cater to the needs and welfare of the one-seventh global human population, attractive, phonetically simulating to even the WHO and stimulating the medicos to its spirits.

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* Including Jharkhand

            Much later from the slips received, I noticed that though   Dr. Shanti Prakash of Ranchi suggested ‘National Medicos Association’, it was a permutation and combination taking ‘Organisation’ from some other medico’s ‘All India Medical Organisation.’ (My own suggested name was Akhil Bhartiya Chikitsak Mahapariwar or All India Medical Grand Family).  I still feel, the final choice of the NMO was the best, one could think of.

            I had a wish that the NMO should work for the nation like the Red Cross. Not only it has proved so but also surprisingly in 1989, I could know that the Indian Red Cross itself was also born on 5th November (in 1920).

            Then, there was a committee to be formed. Seeing the largest number from Hyderabad, I told Om Prakash to name Pulla Reddy as the General Secretary and also to have our office at Hyderabad but he insisted that since it was a new work, I must act as the General Secretary. I was apprehensive that people might think, I was working for the name (and it happened so later) but on his insistence, I had to agree. Had he or anyone else agreed, it would have been easier for me either to roll the cart or as per his guess the chapter would have been closed. After the whole thing was drafted, I had a talk with Mahesh Sharma who was amazed to find such progress and asked me to give him some cyclostyled copies of the press release, which he later distributed in the afternoon press conference.

            The press release had mentioned the objectives of the NMO and its Executive Committee. It was mentioned that the NMO would mobilise medicos on a common national platform to serve the poor, particularly in the rural areas. The objectives of the NMO would be to develop national character among medicos, creating a sense of devotion towards the nation and the humanity and also creating fraternity amongst the students of different systems of medicine.

            It was also envisaged that it would extend active co-operation to the ABVP and other patriotic and like-minded organisations in different fields of constructive work.

  

            It would share the responsibility of delivering primary healthcare services in the villages, concentrating on One College, One Village programme in keeping pace with the Gram Vikash Programme of the ABVP.

            The news was flashed by the national dailies all over the country. When I reached my ancestral village, my uncle had brought a copy of The Indian Nation, of Patna. In the 14th November’s issue it had a big coverage, most aptly captioned, Medicos Body to Serve Poor Formed.

           

            When I returned to Darbhanga, friends were congratulating me but I was in a deeply perplexed mood as to how to shoulder the new responsibility? I drafted the first circular; showed it to many; got it cyclostyled and posted them to all the founding members.

  

            Now when I look at this circular, I am amazed to read my own ideas. I had asked for the suggestions for the draft of the membership form, the place for the Central Office and its first national conference; issue and contents of monthly bulletin, and also sent to them the guidelines for forming various college and state units, One College, One Village Programme and appointing project-in-charges of the same besides collecting donations and for financing tours; a fixed share of which was to be borne by each personally and did also mention that the correspondence would be the ‘blood’ of the NMO and if possible to send postal stamps for reply. Sending news-cuttings was requested and a proposal for issuing identity letters for fraternity promotional tours of medicos was suggested.

             Myself being from a remote corner of the country, I wished to see that finest day of my life when I could hand over my responsibility to some other able member at the first National Conference.

            Much water would have flown in the Ganga through the famous ghats of Varanasi, many promises would have been made by the persons at the helm of the upheaval of the second independence, a revolution, brought by ballots and more so by the illiterates who liberated even the literates by giving mandate against the National Emergency. And, by others and others... Only people can judge what had been done and what should have been done.

            But as far as the NMO is concerned, its roots have gone deep and the NMO has taken its pledge to every word of it and it has been pure and dedicated to the humanity, so divine like the divinity and purity of mother Ganga in every drop of its water.

            Concluding this chapter, I humbly wish to suggest that nobody should assume that someone is a founder of this divine organisation. Divinity is neither born nor is dead at any time. As I have pointed out already; I was playing merely the role of a paper or a pen of Him and for this I was grateful to Him and the medicos who had given me this opportunity to learn and serve.

            Tolstoy in War and Peace says,’ It is not the leader who makes society or brings change, it is the society which in a particular set-up of environment brings about a change in itself and so somebody comes up as a leader on the surface.’

  

            When I later toured, many medicos, seniors and juniors, all over the country (from Punjab to A.P.) told me that they too had such ideas in their minds and they were happy to know that such an organisation existed. And, this was the environment, which prompted me to work. Hence, the Office Secretary of our great organisation, the NMO, subsequently honoured me as its first life member.

* and to establish such model institutions.(added in 2007)