Several users on social media are claiming that the National Medical Commission (NMC) recently changed its official logo which was a national emblem to one featuring a Hindu deity, Dhanwantari.
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)
(More archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)
What's the truth?: The NMC never had national emblem as it's official logo.
The viral claim about NMC changing it's 'old logo' to a new one to include an 'Ayurveda God' is misleading.
The latest change incorporated by the NMC is that they changed the word 'India' in the logo to 'Bharat'.
NMC had released its first ever logo in December 2022 which also carried an image of a Hindu deity but it was black and white.
How did we find out the truth?: We visited NMC's official website to check the current logo.
It confirmed that the logo featured a Hindu deity, Dhanwantari.
We also looked for a notice shared by NMC about the change of logo but found no recent reports.
We came across a notice from 21 September 2021 which invited the public to suggest ideas for NMC's logo and tagline.
The notice can be seen here.
(Source: NMC/Screenshot)
NMC's first logo: Upon checking other press released shared by the NMC, we noticed that none of them carried any official logo until 27 December 2022.
Notices released since 28 December 2022 carried two logos including G20 logo and NMC's new official logo.
The new logo matched the design that it resembles today's logo but the older version was black and white.
The image of Hindu deity was very faintly represented on the 2022 logo.
This screenshot shows NMC's first logo released in December 2022.
(Source: NMC/Screenshot)
Timeline of the logos: We checked press releases and notices shared by NMC on its website. While doing this, we noticed that:
The black and white logo was now colourised in an official notice shared on 27 February 2023.
However, the image of the Hindu deity in the middle was still very faint and black and white.
The logo mentioned 'INDIA' and 'BHARATIYA'.
This is from 27 February 2023.
(Source: NMC/Screenshot)
Further, we found a press release from 8 November 2023 which carried the colourised logo but the deity in the middle of the logo was also colourised this time.
The logo mentioned 'BHARAT'.
This is from 8 November 2023.
(Source: NMC/Screenshot)
Next, a circular from 21 November 2023 carried the colourised logo but the image of the deity in the middle was no longer faint.
It was fully black and prominent.
However, another circular from 22 November 2023 carried the fully colourised logo.
While the logo from 21 November mentioned 'INDIA', the logo from 22 November stated 'BHARAT'.
Comparison between the logos.
(Source: NMC/Altered by The Quint)
We reached out to a former committees for NMC: Dr Ashwini Setya told us that the national emblem is used in all government officiated services and NMC only started using their own logo recently.
He also added that the NMC logo always carried a mythological figure, Dhanwantari and the citizens should feel proud about that.
A member of NMC's Ethics and Medical Registration Board and head of NMC's media division Dr Yogender Malik clarified to The Times of India that the national emblem was never the official NMC logo.
Recent controversy around NMC: The new version of the NMC's logo featuring the image of Hindu deity Dhanwantari has drawn strong reactions from members of the medical fraternity, with many calling it 'unsecular'.
You can read The Quint's story about this here.
Conclusion: A misleading claim about National Medical Commission changing its logo from a national emblem to a Hindu deity is going viral.
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