New Delhi: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to consider awarding Bharat Ratna to healthcare professionals such as doctors, nurses and paramedics’ community in the country for their services during the Covid-19 pandemic. Bharat Ratna is India’s highest civilian honour given yearly.“I want to request the central government to award this year’s Bharat Ratna to an ‘Indian Doctor’. By an ‘Indian Doctor’, I mean the entire medical community - all doctors, nurses and paramedics should be given the award, collectively,” CM Kejriwal said in his letter to the Prime Minister, adding that this was the best way to pay homage to all those who were martyred while serving the nation while on Covid duties.

According to the Indian Medical Association, estimate 1,492 doctors have succumbed to the Covid-19 pandemic apart from a large number of other healthcare professionals. The Kejriwal government has been giving out an ex-gratia of ₹1 crore to the families of frontline workers and doctors who lost their lives on Covid duty.

The Bharat Ratna award is conferred yearly in recognition of exceptional service/performance without distinction of race, occupation, position, or sex in the fields of arts, literature, science, public services, or any field of human endeavor.

“What can be a better token of gratitude for them? If the current rules do not allow Bharat Ratna to be awarded to a community then I urge you to tweak the rules. The entire country is grateful to doctors. If they are awarded Bharat Ratna, the whole nation will be pleased,” said Kejriwal in his letter, a copy of which HT has seen.

Earlier in the day, the chief minister also attended a virtual meeting with a few senior doctors to mark National Doctors’ Day, celebrated on July 1.