Supreme Court striking down the discriminatory law that facilitated the removal of cardiologist P Venugopal as the Director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is a slap on the face of Mandal II Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss. There was little doubt that the AIIMS Act was amended by Parliament at the behest of Anbumani Ramadoss just to satisfy his vendetta against Dr P Venugopal. A bench of Justices Tarun Chatterjee and H S Bedi upheld the appeal filed by Dr Venugopal challenging the law as being discriminatory and purposely brought in to superannuate him. He had contended that the amendment was brought with the sole purpose of removing him from his office due to his differences with Ramadoss. The Supreme Court held that the Act was illegal as the High Court had in March last year upheld his continuation in the post and the matter was pending in the apex court. But Anbumani Ramadoss supported by the likes of Arjun Singh, RK Dhawan, Laloo Prasad Yadav and the ever trouble maker communists of Left, in the meantime, brought the amendment in Parliament. Ramadoss sacked Venugopal in November 2007 after parliament passed the law and it received President Pratibha Patil's assent.
It may be recalled that Anbumani Ramadoss, ever since he became the Health Minister, had functioned with a single point agenda of removing Dr P Venugopal from AIIMS, ignoring the more important responsibilities his position demanded. Most of his tenure was spent in eroding the premier medical institute and demolishing its reputation as a medical centre of excellence. It is amazing that the Health Minister was not bothered by 51% vacancies in the posts of doctors in government hospitals, 7% children in Madhya Pradesh dying before they reached their first birthday, 60% children in the country under the age of three being malnourished and total absence of planning in rural health; but had occupied himself with low level vote bank politics of reservation, gaining cheap publicity by constant interference in domains he is unfamiliar with, and ofcourse his main objective of ridiculing and removing Dr P Venugopal.
As Health Minister, he even accepted the post-graduate medical degrees of five English speaking nations: Britain, Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand. The Medical Council of India (MCI), the apex medical education regulating body of the country does not recognise it. As per an act of parliament, MCI is the 'medical education recognising body' of the country. The health ministry cannot take a decision on foreign degrees completely by itself. Ramadoss’ ministry unilaterally recognised the post-graduate medical degrees without any reciprocal arrangement with those countries. He never bothered to explain the weird logic of his action.
It may be recalled that Anbumani Ramadoss, ever since he became the Health Minister, had functioned with a single point agenda of removing Dr P Venugopal from AIIMS, ignoring the more important responsibilities his position demanded. Most of his tenure was spent in eroding the premier medical institute and demolishing its reputation as a medical centre of excellence. It is amazing that the Health Minister was not bothered by 51% vacancies in the posts of doctors in government hospitals, 7% children in Madhya Pradesh dying before they reached their first birthday, 60% children in the country under the age of three being malnourished and total absence of planning in rural health; but had occupied himself with low level vote bank politics of reservation, gaining cheap publicity by constant interference in domains he is unfamiliar with, and ofcourse his main objective of ridiculing and removing Dr P Venugopal.
As Health Minister, he even accepted the post-graduate medical degrees of five English speaking nations: Britain, Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand. The Medical Council of India (MCI), the apex medical education regulating body of the country does not recognise it. As per an act of parliament, MCI is the 'medical education recognising body' of the country. The health ministry cannot take a decision on foreign degrees completely by itself. Ramadoss’ ministry unilaterally recognised the post-graduate medical degrees without any reciprocal arrangement with those countries. He never bothered to explain the weird logic of his action.
Anbumani Ramadoss proposed quota for other backward classes (OBCs) in institutes of higher learning. Indian Medical Association(IMA) has been at loggerheads with the minister over the issue. Other hair brained schemes proposed by Anbumani Ramadoss included MBBS students to serve one year in rural India before being awarded a degree. According to him, compulsory rural service is the best way to set right the anomalies in public healthcare. He has conveniently ignored the fact that the students are not trained to serve in the villages and that rural health cannot be treated so casually, particularly when most Government funding goes to provide the best healthcare for urban India. Relying on students to provide healthcare amounts to giving second-class treatment to rural India. There is indeed a pressing need to correct the imbalance of doctors in rural and urban areas. But for that, the Minister should have concentrated on improving the 'Healthcare Centres' and their infrastructure instead of putting the cart before the horse and sending novice doctors there. Rural and socially disadvantaged people tend to have far more serious and complex medical problems that need more knowledge, expertise and experience. These problems are certainly beyond the capacity of young, unsupervised doctors. But that did not disturb Anbumani Ramadoss.
Instead of concentrating on his job instead of expressing an opinion on issues that he is totally clueless about, Anbumani Ramadoss busied himself proving his creative genius by devising ways to rid the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) of its Director, P Venugopal by pushing through an ordinance in the Parliament. A case in point is the Minister’s refusal to sign the degree certificates, a demand put forward by the agitating medical students in 2006. The flimsy ground for refusal to sign the document cited by the Minister that the signature on the certificates of Registrar Dr Sandeep Aggarwal, whose appointment he contended was illegal, is sufficient proof of his indifference to the plight of the young doctors who had no degrees to apply for a job. The fact that the resident doctors ended their strike on a promise of immediate issuance of their degree certificates by AIIMS administration, albeit minus the Minister’s signature, should have pleased the Minister as it had taken the initiative to solve a problem that was solely in his domain. Instead, the Minister chose to place his ego above the careers of the affected doctors and the problems of AIIMS, whose President he happened to be. To add insult to injury, Anbumani Ramadoss is a typical hypocrite has been mouthing niceties about the Dr P Venugopal. He may have succeeded in fooling the constituency that elected him. He is naive if he thinks he can fool the whole country by his 'Nothing Personal' comments on the Venugopal issue. The people can see him clearly for what he is.
It is a shame that other politicians of dubious public record, like RK Dhawan, Arjun Singh and Laloo Prasad Yadav joined Anbumani Ramadoss’ efforts to dislodge P Venugopal and interfere in the AIIMS. Given that Anbumani Ramadoss has shamelessly refused to resign and continues to be the Health Minister and President of AIIMS, the relief is bound to be temporary in nature. For, the Minister’s earlier belligerent stance towards the Institute’s Director P Venugopal and his penchant for interfering in the normal functioning of the Institute has once again been revived. The fact that Delhi High Court had earlier ruled in favor of the Director of AIIMS in the dispute did nothing to deter a bitter Ramadoss from bulldozing his ways in the AIIMS. That belligerence is set to grow with the Supreme Court verdict. The country can expect more mischief from a frustrated Health Minister.
It is a shame that other politicians of dubious public record, like RK Dhawan, Arjun Singh and Laloo Prasad Yadav joined Anbumani Ramadoss’ efforts to dislodge P Venugopal and interfere in the AIIMS. Given that Anbumani Ramadoss has shamelessly refused to resign and continues to be the Health Minister and President of AIIMS, the relief is bound to be temporary in nature. For, the Minister’s earlier belligerent stance towards the Institute’s Director P Venugopal and his penchant for interfering in the normal functioning of the Institute has once again been revived. The fact that Delhi High Court had earlier ruled in favor of the Director of AIIMS in the dispute did nothing to deter a bitter Ramadoss from bulldozing his ways in the AIIMS. That belligerence is set to grow with the Supreme Court verdict. The country can expect more mischief from a frustrated Health Minister.
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