Recently, the tragic rape and murder of a female doctor in Kolkata has sparked widespread protests across India. The incident ignited anger among medical professionals as well as the public, and has led to nationwide strikes, include a strike on medical services. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) condemned the act as a “crime of barbaric scale” and demanded justice. The event has indeed showed the perceived vulnerability of doctors, leading to a massive outcry. Hospitals across the country has turned away non-emergency patients as a show of solidarity, in order to call for the better protection of healthcare workers intensified.
The Outcry for Dr. Priyanka Reddy’s Murder
Another such case was the 2019 murder of Dr. Priyanka Reddy, a young veterinary doctor in Hyderabad, India. The gruesome details of her death sparked nationwide outrage, leading to protests, strikes, and demands for justice. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) described the murder as “a crime of barbaric scale,” and thousands of doctors had joined a national strike to protest against the incident and call for better protection of healthcare professionals.
The media coverage was relentless, with daily updates, interviews, and debates dominating the news cycle. The government swiftly responded, and within weeks, the accused were killed in a controversial police encounter. A huge majority of the nation seemed united in their grief and anger, emphasizing the sanctity of doctors’ lives and the need for stringent measures to protect them. While their sentiment is understandable, what got ignored was that there was a small chance that the accused could even be innocent.
The Silence on Devendra Kumar Sharma “Dr. Death” and his crimes
Now, let us look another case- the case of Devendra Kumar Sharma, a former ayurvedic doctor in India, who earned the chilling nickname “Dr. Death.” Sharma was convicted late back in 2004 for murdering over 100 truck drivers, and cab drivers, stealing their vehicles, and feeding their remains to crocodiles in Uttar Pradesh. Over a span of two years, he was involved in dozens of murders, and police believe he could have killed 125 people. He was arrested again in 2020 after he failed to return from a weeks-long parole after serving 16 years behind bars.
Despite the horrifying nature of his crimes, the case did not garner the same level of media attention or public outrage. Sharma was arrested, tried, and sentenced to life imprisonment, but the outrage for this crime was not even 5 percent of what we are seeing now!
Are Doctors’ lives more important than Truck Drivers?
There were no national strikes, no widespread protests, and no overwhelming demand for justice from the public nor from the medical community. In fact, a huge majority of the Indian public is not even aware that such an incident has taken place. Irony is that over one hundred people were killed, but it seems that even the lives of a hundred truck drivers are not worth one doctor.
The case of Sharma is not an isolated incident. In Berlin, a 39-year-old doctor was arrested few weeks back for allegedly killing four elderly patients and attempting to cover up his crimes by setting their homes on fire. Again, the response from the public and media was relatively muted compared to cases where doctors are the victims rather than the perpetrators.
Why is there no outrage or protests when doctors are the perpetrators rather than the victims? Is there any particular agenda or is it just that the lives of people matter only when they are part of the medical community!
Similarly, in Maharashtra, India, Dr. Santosh Pol, dubbed “Doctor Death” by the media, was arrested for allegedly injecting six people with a lethal overdose and burying their bodies at his farmhouse. Yes, his crimes Pol’s crimes were heinous, as much as the recent murder case, but sadly, the public and media response was nowhere near the level of outrage seen in cases where doctors have been killed.
It is also to be noted that these cases mentioned here are only a few examples, there are many such cases or doctors who had commit murders, and many of them have not even been formally reported!
The Hypocrisy and Media Bias
Now, if you think about this, the disparity in public and media reactions to these cases highlights a significant hypocrisy, does it not? When a doctor is murdered, the response is swift and loud, driven by a loud narrative that emphasizes the vulnerability of healthcare professionals and the need for their protection. Yes, obviously, the incident in Kolkata was brutal and tragic, and perpetrators should be brought to justice at the earliest! But at the same time, why is there no noise from the public and the media, when cab drivers or truck drivers are killed at the hands of doctors?
Is this bias due to the societal perception of doctors as saviors and protectors? Such a bias might lead to a cognitive dissonance when faced with the idea of a doctor as a murderer instead. Secondly, media outlets may prioritize stories that evoke strong emotional reactions, and the murder of a doctor might fit their narrative more, as compared to the other stories that we talked about.
The Need for Consistent Accountability
The medical community, the media, and the public must recognize that justice should be blind to the profession of the perpetrator. Whether a doctor is the victim or the criminal, the response should be guided by the principles of justice, fairness, and accountability.
In conclusion, while the murder of a doctor is undeniably a tragedy that needs swift justice and better protection for doctors and healthcare workers, it is important that the same level of attention and outrage is seen on other cases, where the victims are people from other professions. Only by removing this kind of hypocrisy, we can ensure a just and fair society for all.
