Author: Editorial
Publication: The Free Press Journal
Date: July 28, 2006
URL: http://www.samachar.com/features/280706-editorial.html
Before he heaps further ignominy on the Government,
the least that is expected of the Prime Minister is to move the Health and
Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss to another department. By mulishly
carrying on a personal vendetta against Dr. P. Venugopal, the well-respected
head of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, the minister has forfeited
any right to continue in his present charge.
Indeed, in normal times if the Prime Minister
was his own boss, and not a prisoner of several masters outside the government,
he would have given the marching orders to this errant member of his Cabinet
long, long ago.
For, Ramadoss became an embarrassment to the
Government from the moment he was appointed the Health Minister. Stories of
his arrogance and misuse of the facilities of the country's premier research
and referral medical institution are a legion. Even the errand boys in his
personal staff sought to lord over widely-respected doctors, and allegedly
misused the finances of the premier institution.
But matters seemed to have reached a point
of no return following the recent rebuff to the Government by a bench of the
Delhi High Court. Dr Ramadoss clearly did not know how to cut his losses and
run. Instead of accepting the order of the single-judge, who had quashed the
arbitrary and wholly unlawful dismissal of Dr Venugopal, the Minister insisted
on challenging that decision before a multi-member bench.
He was soundly rebuffed again when the two-member
bench duly upheld the earlier decision which had found his dismissal ultra
vires. In fact, several members of the governing council were quoted in the
media to the effect that the ministry had not taken their consent while challenging
the earlier decision of the Delhi High Court.
In other words, the Ministry had resorted
to a fraud insofar as it had relied on the governing council's recommendation
even though it had not met to take any decision in this regard.
Sadly enough, Ramadoss refuses to learn any
lessons from the repeated judicial rebuffs. Instead of accepting with good
grace the court's decision, he has publicly committed himself to carry on
his vendetta against Dr Venugopal. He has now claimed that at the end of the
monsoon session of parliament he would resume hostilities against the AIIMS
director in order to ease him out of that post.
Before he does that, the onus to ease him
out of the Health Ministry lies squarely with Manmohan Singh. But can our
gentleman PM muster some strength and straightforwardness to end the humiliation
of one of the leading cardio-thoracic surgeons?
Is that what is clear to everyone else in
the country not clear to the PM that his Health Minister is degrading the
institutional autonomy of the country's best known medical research institute?
If financial integrity alone is the criteria for holding on to the prime ministerial
`gaddi', Manmohan Singh will be surprised to know that in every nook and cranny
of this country there are men and women who have not spoken a lie all their
lives, who have not cheated anyone of a paise.
Nor have they networked for wangling posts
and assignments far in excess of their intellectual achievements. But it would
be foolish for anyone to make one of them prime minister merely on account
of their financial integrity. Without being loyal to some cardinal principles
of good governance, the PM cannot but inflict further pain on the country.
After the sorry mess the Health Minister has
created under his charge, the minimum expected of Manmohan Singh ought to
be done. Otherwise, it would furnish further evidence that he clings to office
even while he knows he can do no good.
