Taking the blame for the mix up in the medical oath for freshers of Madurai Medical College during the White Coat Ceremony on Saturday, the office-bearers of the students’ council claimed that none of the officials of the medical college were aware of it.
The clarification comes a day after the State Government had put Madurai Medical College Dean A. Rathinavel on a “vacancy reserve”, for having allowed students take the Charak Shapath instead of the traditional Hippocratic Oath.
In a hurriedly organised press briefing on the college premises on Monday, its president, Jothis Kumaravel, said that it was the decision of the students' council, which had organised the White Coat Ceremony, to go with Maharishi Charak Shapath since it was recommended by the National Medical Commission (NMC).
Mr. Kumaravel further clarified that since his batch of students was following the competency-based medical education of the NMC since 2019, they tried to follow the NMC's guidelines, dated March 31, on the oath.
He claimed that they did it neither with any intention nor under any pressure. Similarly, he claimed that he was not aware about the controversy it could stoke.
"There was also no explicit order (from the State Government) — neither making Hippocratic Oath mandatory nor prohibiting Maharishi Charak Shapath — for the freshers," he explained.
Only after the issue became a debate, did the Directorate of Medical Education issue a circular on Sunday that only the Hippocratic Oath should be taken and not the Charak Shapath in all medical colleges across Tamil Nadu, he said.
"We had downloaded the oath from the internet... and since the event was organised in a hurried manner, we failed to take this (change in oath) to the attention of the advisory committee," he added.
The students said that they were not aware of which oath was administered to freshers in other Government medical colleges in the State this year.
The students also clarified that they had not taken the oath in Sanskrit, as projected in a section of media, but only its English version.
The students' council general secretary, Venugopal and vice-president, Deeptha Viswanathan, were present.
