Dr Ranvi Wankhedkar, national president of the IMA, in conversation with ANI, said that the prime minister’s remarks made “in a country where the medical system is run by 70% Indians” has saddened medicine practitioners. He also said that issues like prices of drugs are in the hands of the government and not the doctors. Wankhedkar humbly requested the PM to reconsider his remark.

The IMA, in their letter addressed to Narendra Modi, wrote, “Engaging in small talk and maligning the entire medical fraternity in India with a broad brush on foreign soil was certainly not expected out of the prime minister.”

They also said that the health system of the country “from where you commented” would collapse without the support of Indian doctors.