A shocked community of Indian doctors here and elsewhere has sought Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan’s intervention to stop the appointment of the “disgraced” former Medical Council of India (MCI) chief Ketan Desai as president of the World Medical Association for 2016.
News of his appointment was published in the latest issue of the WMA journal, says Kunal Saha, president, People for Better Treatment, Ohio.
“It is unacceptable that a doctor who is awaiting trial for serious criminal charges of bribery and [other cases of] corruption and whose medical registration still remains suspended by the MCI would head the world medical body,” he noted in a letter.
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He sent a memorandum to the Minister urging him to step in immediately to prevent Dr. Desai from becoming WMA president.
Dr. Saha said Ajay Kumar, now a member of the MCI ethics committee and chairman of the grievance committee, went before the WMA Assembly last year with a letter from the Indian Medical Association claiming that the Indian authority [CBI] had dropped all charges against Dr. Desai, who should be reinstated as WMA president (as he was chosen as president-elect in 2009 prior to his arrest by the CBI in 2010).
“What Dr. Kumar and other leaders of the IMA claimed before the WMA was utterly false as has been confirmed by the CBI,” Dr. Saha said.
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IMA office-bearer Narendra Saini said: “It is up to the WMA to decide.”
IMA secretary-general (elect) K.K. Agarwal said: “Dr. Desai is a member of the IMA and is registered with the MCI, there is no reason why he cannot be the president of WMA.’’