Several Indian American organizations, including the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin--arguably the largest and most influential international medical group in the US--and leading Hindu leaders have blasted Fox News' conservative talk show host Glenn Beck for insulting medical care in India  and joking that the holy river Ganga sounded like a disease.

Dr Vinod Shah, president of AAPI, said, "Having carefully read the transcript of Beck's comments, we are disappointed by his careless reference to the quality of medical schools in India.Many Indian American physicians received their medical education in India, and combined with top medical training in the United States, they have contributed enormously to their local communities," Shah noted. "Additionally, physicians of Indian origin around the world from Canada , the UK, and other nations who received their medical education in India, have made great strides in delivering quality health care to millions of patients on a global scale."

Shah said, "We understand that Mr Beck's comments were directed toward the Department of Labor and labor unions, and his statement about medical schools in India was in response to an American woman who received a hip replacement in India, a surgery that costs much more here in the United States. Beck erroneously claimed that the higher costs were attributable to the quality of the medical school a physician attends, comparing Harvard to schools in India."

Shah argued that "however, the higher medical costs in the United States have nothing to do with where a doctor went to medical school. They have to do with much higher labor, overhead and infrastructure costs, and a constant threat of liability and litigation, resulting in needless lawsuits, defensive medicine, and higher medical malpractice insurance rates.We are disappointed by Beck's comments and offended by his stereotypical references to India, disease, and the Ganga. We do hope he will make efforts in the future to engage in discussions that are not only accurate, but civil as well," the AAPI president said.

Beck, whom Time magazine described as a 'Mad Man' had on the December 9 episode of his weekday show, c