Indian Medical Association Slams Lancet For Editorial On J&K Situation
The Indian Medical Association said the journal has under the “garb of concern” over Jammu and Kashmir interfered in an internal matter of India. “The Lancet has no locus standi on the issue of Kashmir. Kashmir issue is a legacy that the British Empire left behind,” the IMA has said in a letter to the journal
NEW DELHI: The Indian Medical Association has strongly responded to The Lancet’s recent editorial raising concerns over the health and freedom of “Kashmiri people”, saying the journal has under the “garb of concern” over Jammu and Kashmir interfered in an internal matter of India.
“It is unfortunate that the reputed medical journal The Lancet has committed breach of propriety in commenting on this political issue. It is amounting to interference into an internal matter of Union of India. The Lancet has no locus standi on the issue of Kashmir. Kashmir issue is a legacy that the British Empire left behind,” the IMA has said in a letter to the journal.
Questioning the “credibility and the mala fide intention” behind “the uncalled for editorial”, the IMA wrote that the journal had “reacted to an internal administrative decision of Government of India under the garb of concern for the health of Kashmiris.”
The IMA letter, addressed to Lancet’s editor-in-chief Richard Horton, says the journal has raked up alleged concerns over the health of people in J&K. The journal, in an editorial on Saturday, had said revoking J&K’s autonomy is a “controversial move” and that there were “serious concerns for the health, safety, and freedoms of the Kashmiri people.”
The editorial titled ‘Fear and uncertainty around Kashmir’s future’ flagged what it claimed were possible health impacts on the people of Kashmir in the wake of the lock down imposed there. The comment related to the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the state.
“However, the protracted exposure to violence has led to a formidable mental health crisis,” the Lancet editorial claimed, referring to a Médecins Sans Frontières study in two rural districts of J&K.
It argued that though Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed that the decision would bring prosperity to Kashmir, “But first, the people of Kashmir need healing from the deep wounds of this decades-old conflict, not subjugation to further violence and alienation.”
Criticising the editorial piece, IMA called it “ uncalled for”.
