Author: Editorial
Publication: The Times of India
Date: July 7, 2006
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1711759.cms
Introduction: Ramadoss is fighting the wrong
battles
Along with HRD minister Arjun Singh, health
minister Anbumani Ramadoss appears to have donned the mantle of Don Quixote
in the Union cabinet. Ramadoss led the double-barrelled charge against smoking
in films.
After having taken on Rajnikanth - whose cult
status is derived, in part, from his on-screen stunts with cigarettes - he
took aim next at Bollywood heroes endorsing cola drinks.
When Delhi gifted a couple of radars to the
Sri Lankan armed forces that elicited a stentorian rebuff from Ramadoss who
called on the govern-ment, of which he himself is a member, to inspire trust
among Tamils.
Thereafter Ramadoss detected in AIIMS - an
institution normally perceived as a centre of excellence where people travel
hundreds of miles to receive treatment - a fount of caste prejudice in need
of urgent reform.
Meanwhile general public health languishes
in the country, with 40 per cent of government doctors and a third of nurses
supposed to staff what is, in any case, an inadequate number of government
health centres, being absent at any given time. This affects the interests
of everyone, particularly India's underprivileged who can't afford private
care.
While Ramadoss's supporters have tried to
gloss his running feud with AIIMS director and well-known cardiologist, Dr
P Venugopal, which has culminated in the latter's dismissal, as a fallout
of disagreement over the introduction of OBC quotas in AIIMS, it is noteworthy
that even the Left, which is as hawkish on the OBC quota issue as Ramadoss
is, thinks he overreached in this instance and has protested Venugopal's sacking.
The Supreme Court, too, has criticised Ramadoss
severely for his handling of AIIMS doctors' agitation against reservation.
While the strike was on the government appeared conciliatory, conceding there
was some merit in the agitators' argument that reservations for OBCs should
not come at the expense of opportunities for others.
But it's now docketing pay for doctors after
having persuaded them to call off the strike. That's not only like kicking
a man when he's down, it's in sharp contrast to the government's indulgent
practices when it comes to striking public sector workers.
Venugopal's dismissal is likely to add fuel
to the fire. The rot set in when ministers began to interfere in the day-to-day
functioning of AIIMS.
If India's centres of excellence are not to
go further downhill, they have to be assured a reasonable measure of autonomy.
That would entail, among other things, Ramadoss's removal from the AIIMS presidency.
