THE ONLY premier medical institute of world repute in India - All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is all set to be doomed, if a bill is passed by the Parliament. Once passed, the autonomy of the institute, which is in the Guinness Book of World Record for treating a record number of 25 lakh patients per annum, will be a thing of the past.

Its illustrious director Dr P Venugopal will be removed within hours, as he is the target of the political vendetta. The ultimately loser in the process will be the country’s medical sciences. In his argument in Parliament, the union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss, a novice in politics, installed by his father, said that he wants to make AIIMS reach the same level as that of Harvard Medical College, Stanford and Johns Hopkins medical centre. But the tenure of the heads of these institutes is 17, 13 and 10 years respectively.

Look what the bill actually says:  “(1A) The Director shall hold office for a term of five years from the date on which he enters upon his office or until he attains the age of sixty-five years, whichever is earlier:

Provided that any person holding office as a Director immediately before the commencement of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (Amendment) Act, 2007, shall in so far as his appointment is inconsistent with the provisions of this sub-section, cease to hold office on such commencement as such Director and shall be entitled to claim compensation not exceeding three months pay and allowances for the premature termination of his office or of any contract of service.

(1B) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1A), the Central Government shall, if it is of the opinion that it is in the public interest so to do, have the right to terminate the term of office of the Director at any time before the expiry of his term by giving him a notice of not less than three months in writing or three months’ salary and allowances in lieu thereof.”

AIIMS, a dream creation of pundit Nehru, by the very government run by his grand-daughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi, is now standing as mute observer and mute support seeker of Ramadoss.

The Resident Doctors Association (RDA) of the AIIMS has compared the act of Indian Parliament, displayed publicly on November 22, to pass an amendment to remove AIIMS illustrious director Venugopal with that of the treatment offered by Sultan Mahmud to Firdausi somewhere in the 11th century.

RDA president Dr Kumar Harsh and general secretary Dr Kaushal Kant Mishra in a press release alleged that the health minister is resorting to victimise the AIIMS due to its vocal opposition to the 27 per cent OBC (Other Backward Classes) reservation plot of HRD minister Arjun Singh.

Now the baton of the so called social justice has been stolen by the self proclaimed backward leader Ramadoss, the country’s health minister, whose only claim to fame would be his family’s success in registering the powerful Vanniyar community of Tamil Nadu in the backward list.

Though the OBC students followed Supreme Court’s fair judgment and turbulent peace prevailed in every institution including AIIMS, RDA alleged that Ramadoss never tolerated the democratic norms and the just protest of the student community, as he miscalculated the strength of the students.

The vendetta politics started. The nucleus of the movement, AIIMS was first to suffer the government’s ire. AIIMS was made synonymous with ugliness and unpleasantness.

One after the other committee, one after the other allegation and one after the other charges were levelled against the director and reputation of AIIMS, only to be found incorrect and fraudulent, and only meant to settle political scores. People cutting across the party line expressed their displeasure over the unfortunate development as the health minister created trouble for the AIIMS and its inhabitants.

The 2000 Amendment Act of AIIMS said, “as soon as a Member of Parliament becomes a minister or minister of state or deputy minister, speaker or deputy speaker of the house or the deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha, he or she shall lose his membership of the institute.”

Fingers were automatically raised to question whether the health minister was liable to be disqualified as an MP for holding an office of profit. Contrary to the rules, which said that members of the governing body should be representatives of the Indian Science Congress Association, Ramadoss appointed his secretary and his sister’s father-in-law as members of the governing body.

The reason cited for the dismissal was nothing sort of stupidity, “criticising the government in the media.” Dr Venugopal never supported the strike at AIIMS as the government itself admitted to the fact. Everyday he was issuing stern notices to the representatives of the striking doctors.

 It require little commonsense to understand the fact that as the government itself failed to act against the striking doctors as evident from the Supreme Court ruling of June 5, 2006 (the government was on its knees on May 28, pleading with the doctors to withdraw their strike). How could a mere director of AIIMS act and prevail!

The Parliamentary committee on AIIMS deplores the decision. Its chairman Amar Singh openly advocated for the director’s reinstatement. Senior congress leader AK Antony drafted the committee’s deplorable letter. CPM (Communist Party of India - Marxist and CPI (Communist Party of India) threatened to raise this issue in the parliament if Venugopal is not reinstated.

It is interesting to note that the helpless Prime Minister had kept mum on the whole issue, while the Court was giving one decision after another, much to the delight of the medical fraternity and enough to embarrass the government.

Failing on all fronts, the health minister has now taken the easy and fluid route of amending the constitution with the rude majority of the Parliament! On November 22, 2007 a bill was moved with the sole purpose of removing the director of AIIMS and curtailing the autonomy and high standard of functioning of AIIMS.

The debate in the Lok Sabha depicts the prejudice of the health minister. Caste related bias levelled against the director of AIIMS and against other faculty of AIIMS! No case has ever been proved in this effect. The RDA of AIIMS has openly invited all and any MPs and media personnel to come and investigate the charges levelled in the Lok Sabha.

The RDA takes strong exception to the act of the health minister and the sinister design of the UPA government to remove the autonomy of AIIMS and replace it with a politically interior design. The RDA would not sit silently and let the event unfold.  “With all our might we will fight the injustice till good sense and justice prevail,” they said.

Today, it is AIIMS and tomorrow it may be IISc (Indian Institute of Science), CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), SGPGI (Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (Lucknow), BARC (Bhabha Atomic Research Center), NII (National Institute of Immunology), ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation), DU (Delhi University), JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University) or for that matter any autonomous institution of national importance and working towards an international reputation. It is not the time to sit in drawing rooms and wait for the worse to come. We have to oppose it and end this political drama and death sentence for scientific autonomy of this country.