The Sacking of Venugopalan
Well, the recent sacking of P Venugopalan as the director of AIIMS is another blemish in Indian history, following the tale of reservations. Anubani Ramadoss, our health minister, cited the primary reason for disqualification as 'Using AIIMS as a political battlefeild'. Though the statement is certainly true, but the culprit is you Mr Ramadoss! (though he is a doctor, i do not think he is worth the qualification, so i shall address him as Mr or plainly Ramadoss throughout this post!) .
This post intends to bring out certain facts which many people are unaware of. One of the primary factors which is to be taken into consideration is the formation of the AIIMS governing body. AIIMS is an autonomous institution, formed under the AIIMS act and thus all top level decisions are taken by an independent governing body rather than the government. This governing body used to comprise the Health Secretary and Health Minister before, but in 1996, the Rajya Sabha had ordered that the Health Minister and Health Secretary be removed from it. Thus, the presence of Ramadoss, who was present in the governing body, is not only immoral, but it is also illegal.
In fact the Delhi High Court has issued a notice for the dissolution of the AIIMS governing body, in response to a petition which was filed on this fact.
Now, the question is - why is Ramadoss so much interested in interfering AIIMS? One of the obvious reasons is that the UPA Govt wanted to suppress all moves of opposition against the increase in quotas. All the directors of autonomous institutes like IITs and AIIMS were told to make sure that the students do not protest, but there was no written order based on this. The Directors of IITs did warn the students of direct restigation if they took part in any event (rally/strike/demonstration), but Venugopal had the courage to tell the govt that his students were striking for the right cause, and since the cause was right in his opinion, he offered full support of the students.
So, as we all know, AIIMS became the epicentre for the protests against the quotas, while other bigger institutes (i mean in size, not in stature) like IITs watched the whole process as silent spectators. In fact, until the lathi charge on medicos took place, there was hardly any support from the outside, and just AIIMS, with the support of the medical colleges of Delhi and some other states, waged on the battle themselves. However, the strike, being entirely peaceful, did gather momentum, and slowly more and more people joining in, which eventually put the pressure on the government, and it conceded to a deman to increase the seats.
After the Supreme Court Intervened and ordered the doctors to get back to work in interest of the patients, the doctors dutifully obeyed, and the strike ceased to continue. The government, at that point of time had offered to take no 'disciplinary action' of any kind against the agitating doctors. However, when the time came to distribute the monthly stipends/salaries, the government refused to pay for the days the doctors were on strike! The issue was not only of a monetary matter, but the fact that those students who were in internship, had their internship extended by that many number of days! Now, the AIl India Post Graduate Examination (for entrance into PG Medical courses) requires that the students should clear their internships on or before March 31st of the year in which the exam is to be conducted. Keeping this fact into consideration, most of the colleges make sure that the internship is completed till the last week of March (in most cases it is 30th or 31st). Now, since the internship period is extended by 19 days, this means that those students who were on strike, end up losing a year, since they wont be eligible for the entrance examination!
The case is in court, and in a statement, the Supreme Court has blasted the government to apply the "No Way No Work" Principle. It has suggested the government to act as an ideal employer, and fulfill the promises it made and immediately restore the salary and stipends. However, this is just a suggestion yet, and no notice or leigislative action has yet taken place on this ground, and the case is still in court, as hundereds of mediocs are eagerly waiting for a favourable verdict, so that they don't have to lose a year.
Ramadoss' linkage to AIIMS is not just limited to the reservation issue. He made sure that all his chamchas were a part of the governing body, by giving orders to place them there. It has been observed that most of the people in the governing body were either his relatives or confidiates. This is why the verdict to sack the director came out as 12-3 on votes. Now, what does Ramadoss gain from this? The answer is MONEY! With all his confidiates in place, Ramadoss was all set to gobble up astronomous amounts of money. This is because the aid that the centre provides for the functioning of AIIMS is huge. It runs into several crores a day. All the decision about when and where this money is to be spent, is taken by the governing body, because of the autonomy issue. Now, Ramadoss wanted to take full advantage of this, and fill his coffers at will. (all of us know he didn't even dream of becoming the health minister, and probably will never think of it again). But in this process, his main problem was Venugopal, who is known to be a very truthful and humble man. He is not the kinds who would accept his 'cut' and let Ramadoss grab all the money he can. So, he took up the reservation issue, and the demand for the salary of doctors as issues and sacked Venugopal, without even giving him as much of a chance to explain his standpoint.
I would like to add a bit about Venugopal here. He is the person who conduced the first Heart Transplant in India, and is probably the best Cardiac Suergon in India at the moment. He is highly revered in the medical community, and has rejected several offers by private institutes to join them full time in exchange for huge sums of money. He is very much in love with AIIMS and he has done his MBBS, MS, MCh and his residencies, all from AIIMS. So his attachment to the institute is obvious. I know his wife, who is the Head of the Deptt in Ophthalmology at Lady Hardringe Medical College. She continued to work as normal, without even giving a clue to as what was going on in AIIMS. Hardly anyone in her department knows that she is Venugopalan's wife! After being sacked, Venugopalan even refused to celerbrate his birthday, declaring this was his 'death-day' at AIIMS, and turned back all visitors.
This is what a person gets for his attachment and dedication to an institution, for whom he spent his entire life as a gift from our myopic gang of politicans.
All we can hope for now is a favourable outcome of the cases pending with the court, and the govenrment adhering to those decsions rather than passing legislations for new laws, as had been done before. Otherwise, the next Venugoplan in the making will probably pack his bags to settle abroad....
This post intends to bring out certain facts which many people are unaware of. One of the primary factors which is to be taken into consideration is the formation of the AIIMS governing body. AIIMS is an autonomous institution, formed under the AIIMS act and thus all top level decisions are taken by an independent governing body rather than the government. This governing body used to comprise the Health Secretary and Health Minister before, but in 1996, the Rajya Sabha had ordered that the Health Minister and Health Secretary be removed from it. Thus, the presence of Ramadoss, who was present in the governing body, is not only immoral, but it is also illegal.
In fact the Delhi High Court has issued a notice for the dissolution of the AIIMS governing body, in response to a petition which was filed on this fact.
Now, the question is - why is Ramadoss so much interested in interfering AIIMS? One of the obvious reasons is that the UPA Govt wanted to suppress all moves of opposition against the increase in quotas. All the directors of autonomous institutes like IITs and AIIMS were told to make sure that the students do not protest, but there was no written order based on this. The Directors of IITs did warn the students of direct restigation if they took part in any event (rally/strike/demonstration), but Venugopal had the courage to tell the govt that his students were striking for the right cause, and since the cause was right in his opinion, he offered full support of the students.
So, as we all know, AIIMS became the epicentre for the protests against the quotas, while other bigger institutes (i mean in size, not in stature) like IITs watched the whole process as silent spectators. In fact, until the lathi charge on medicos took place, there was hardly any support from the outside, and just AIIMS, with the support of the medical colleges of Delhi and some other states, waged on the battle themselves. However, the strike, being entirely peaceful, did gather momentum, and slowly more and more people joining in, which eventually put the pressure on the government, and it conceded to a deman to increase the seats.
After the Supreme Court Intervened and ordered the doctors to get back to work in interest of the patients, the doctors dutifully obeyed, and the strike ceased to continue. The government, at that point of time had offered to take no 'disciplinary action' of any kind against the agitating doctors. However, when the time came to distribute the monthly stipends/salaries, the government refused to pay for the days the doctors were on strike! The issue was not only of a monetary matter, but the fact that those students who were in internship, had their internship extended by that many number of days! Now, the AIl India Post Graduate Examination (for entrance into PG Medical courses) requires that the students should clear their internships on or before March 31st of the year in which the exam is to be conducted. Keeping this fact into consideration, most of the colleges make sure that the internship is completed till the last week of March (in most cases it is 30th or 31st). Now, since the internship period is extended by 19 days, this means that those students who were on strike, end up losing a year, since they wont be eligible for the entrance examination!
The case is in court, and in a statement, the Supreme Court has blasted the government to apply the "No Way No Work" Principle. It has suggested the government to act as an ideal employer, and fulfill the promises it made and immediately restore the salary and stipends. However, this is just a suggestion yet, and no notice or leigislative action has yet taken place on this ground, and the case is still in court, as hundereds of mediocs are eagerly waiting for a favourable verdict, so that they don't have to lose a year.
Ramadoss' linkage to AIIMS is not just limited to the reservation issue. He made sure that all his chamchas were a part of the governing body, by giving orders to place them there. It has been observed that most of the people in the governing body were either his relatives or confidiates. This is why the verdict to sack the director came out as 12-3 on votes. Now, what does Ramadoss gain from this? The answer is MONEY! With all his confidiates in place, Ramadoss was all set to gobble up astronomous amounts of money. This is because the aid that the centre provides for the functioning of AIIMS is huge. It runs into several crores a day. All the decision about when and where this money is to be spent, is taken by the governing body, because of the autonomy issue. Now, Ramadoss wanted to take full advantage of this, and fill his coffers at will. (all of us know he didn't even dream of becoming the health minister, and probably will never think of it again). But in this process, his main problem was Venugopal, who is known to be a very truthful and humble man. He is not the kinds who would accept his 'cut' and let Ramadoss grab all the money he can. So, he took up the reservation issue, and the demand for the salary of doctors as issues and sacked Venugopal, without even giving him as much of a chance to explain his standpoint.
I would like to add a bit about Venugopal here. He is the person who conduced the first Heart Transplant in India, and is probably the best Cardiac Suergon in India at the moment. He is highly revered in the medical community, and has rejected several offers by private institutes to join them full time in exchange for huge sums of money. He is very much in love with AIIMS and he has done his MBBS, MS, MCh and his residencies, all from AIIMS. So his attachment to the institute is obvious. I know his wife, who is the Head of the Deptt in Ophthalmology at Lady Hardringe Medical College. She continued to work as normal, without even giving a clue to as what was going on in AIIMS. Hardly anyone in her department knows that she is Venugopalan's wife! After being sacked, Venugopalan even refused to celerbrate his birthday, declaring this was his 'death-day' at AIIMS, and turned back all visitors.
This is what a person gets for his attachment and dedication to an institution, for whom he spent his entire life as a gift from our myopic gang of politicans.
All we can hope for now is a favourable outcome of the cases pending with the court, and the govenrment adhering to those decsions rather than passing legislations for new laws, as had been done before. Otherwise, the next Venugoplan in the making will probably pack his bags to settle abroad....
posted by Bhaskar Azad at 8:49 AM
1 Comments:
Its a very well written.
Meridian real estate
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