Ajay Kumar Roy, former head of the school of medical science and research, IIT Kharagpur, wrote to Metro about the birth of Dr B.C. Roy Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, a super specialty hospital that has now been renamed after Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the founder of the Jana Sangh, who had nothing to do with either medicine or IIT.

Roy, who had retired as a professor of electronics and electrical communications engineering at IIT, was one of the signatories to the letter that the IIT Kharagpur alumni had written to the Prime Minister last month, requesting him not to inaugurate the hospital that has been renamed on the occasion of IIT’s convocation on February 23.

While the inauguration was put off, the renaming has been formalised by the institute surreptitiously last week.

IIT Kharagpur, the first IIT in India, started its journey on Aug 18, 1951 with eminent academician and scientist Sir JC Ghosh as the first director and Dr B.C. Roy, the legendary doctor and chief minister of West Bengal, as the first chairman, board of governors of IIT Kharagpur.

At the dawn of 21st century in 2000-2001, IIT Kharagpur was celebrating its golden jubilee year and as a part of that celebration decided to start a new school “School of Medical Science and Technology” at IIT Kharagpur.

Prof. Amitabha Ghosh, the then director, took special interest in initiating this school — the only one of it’s kind in India.

The idea behind starting this school was to initiate multi-disciplinary research in medical and engineering sciences and technologies.

The school, right from its initiation, received support from eminent space and defense scientist Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the then scientific advisor to the Prime Minister, the director general, ICMR and many eminent physicians across the country.

IIT Kharagpur started offering a three-year interdisciplinary course “Master of Medical Science and Technology” specially designed for doctors with MBBS, MS or MD degrees.

The course is aimed at providing basic ideas of electronics and communication technology, computer science and engineering, mechanical engineering, medical physics, material science, mathematical tools in medicine and so on.

One of the major problems that the institute was suffering from, and is still suffering from, was the absence of any worthwhile good hospital on the IIT Kharagpur campus or even in the whole of Kharagpur subdivision.

We, the IITians have lost many of our colleagues — teaching and non-teaching staff — and also students because of the non-availability of any good healthcare facilities.

A 21-year-old student of IIT Kharagpur had died in March 2009 after he fell off a rickshaw, prompting charges of medical negligence at the campus hospital and triggering a students’ protest that forced the director of the institute to resign.

Rohit Kumar, a third-year electrical engineering student, was playing basketball outside his Lala Lajpat Rai hostel in the morning.

His death a few hours later stunned the campus, and shock soon snowballed into outrage.

A violent protest engulfed the residence of then director Damodar Acharya, who resigned in the evening of March 21, and the medical officer of the hospital was suspended

We then had a small healthcare facility, which still exists today, known as B.C. Roy Technology Hospital.

This hospital does not have any major surgical facility or major radiological imaging facilities like MRI, CT etc.

From the School of Medical Science and Technology (SMST) our students and researchers felt that the absence of an excellent multi-specialist research hospital was a major hurdle to carry out major research projects.

The specialist research hospital could at the same time meet the requirement of proper health care facility.

In late 2006, we wrote to our President Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who always used to take interest in the development of the school.

He expressed his desire to see the facilities at School of Medical Science and Technology (SMST) and the research, which was going on.

In 2006, we strongly felt the immediate requirement of setting up a research hospital with diverse disciplines including cardiology and cardiac surgery, neurology and neuro surgery, endocrinology, oncology and so on.

We also had an idea of starting a major area on traditional medicine including Ayurvedic, homeopathy and so on.

We, the students, teachers and our former director Prof. S K Dube decided to name this major multi-disciplinary research hospital and research centre in the name of Dr B.C. Roy who was one of the founders of the first IIT at Kharagpur and who remained as the chairman, board of governors of IIT Kharagpur till the last day of his life.

When we proposed this name to Dr Kalam, he was extremely happy. We requested him to lay the foundation stone of this research hospital and research institute and he immediately agreed to lay the foundation stone on May 17, 2007. As President of India, possibly this was his last foundation stone laying function

Dr Kalam, in his address to the teachers, students, researchers and many distinguished persons from the entire state had said: “I am very happy that this multi-specialty research centre is named after the great personality of India, Dr B.C. Roy, who was a freedom fighter and a professional doctor….I am sure that his name will be ringing in the ears of our teachers and students so that they follow his ideals of service towards mankind.”

Later on Dr Kalam wanted to know the progress of Dr B.C. Roy Medical Research Institute from time to time.

Even as I had joined Bengal Engineering and Science University (BESU) Shibpur as the vice-chancellor in 2009 and continued as director of IIEST (BESU was elevated to Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology in 2014) till 2018, I kept myself abreast about the development of the project.

It’s great to witness the completion of this unique medical research institute, which is a boon to many patients suffering from major illnesses and also to hundreds of researchers, not only from IIT Kharagpur but also from the institutes across the country.

However, just before the inauguration of this institution, to our utter shock, we came to know that the name has been suddenly changed to Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Institute of Medical Sciences and Research.

(On February 12 night, IIT Kharagpur director V.K. Tewari had made a Facebook post on the upcoming convocation on February 23: “The Prime Minister will also inaugurate (virtually) Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, IIT Kharagpur.”)

To thousands of our alumni, professors, both present and past, students, this was an inappropriate decision. It would be incongruous to rename the facility, given the role Dr B.C. Roy had played in shaping this IIT.

The hospital was named after B.C. Roy because of his contributions to the field of medical science. We are dismayed to find that the name of the hospital has been changed to Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, inconsistent with the origins of the institute and sentiments expressed by the respected former president of India, dedicating the institute in memory of a great visionary of modern Bengal.

We urge our Hon’ble Prime Minister to kindly restore the original name and inaugurate Dr B.C. Roy Medical Research Institute.