New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah, on Wednesday urged the Indian Medical Association (IMA) to withdraw the symbollic protest by the doctors against the attacks on health workers amidst the Corona crisis and assured that the government is with them.

The IMA has given a call to doctors and all medical professionals to light a candle on Wednesday, with their white coats on as mark of protest against the attacks.

“Light a candle with white coat. White Alert is only a warning,” the IMA said in a letter addressed to its doctors and hospitals.

Interacting with doctors and the medical association through video-conferencing, along with Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, Amit Shah assured them that the government stands with them and is committed to protect them.

Keeping in mind increasing number of attacks on doctors and frontline health workers across the country, the doctors have even called for observing ‘Black Day” if no action is taken by the government and that doctors in the country will work with black badges on April 23.

While several attacks have been reported in Karnataka, a doctor named Simon Hercules was denied a decent burial in Chennai.

Recently, the body of a doctor from Andhra Pradesh who died from COVID-19 was not allowed at a Chennai crematorium.

In Meghalaya’s Shillong, locals refused to allow the last rites of a 69-year-old doctor who died after contracting coronavirus infection.