Don't We Deserve a Better Health Minister? | N.R.Mohanty

Published on 02-12-2007 In National

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Don't We Deserve a Better Health Minister?

The young Union health minister Dr.Anbumani Ramadoss has built a track record in the last three and half years that barely gives confidence to the people about his ability to handle the important job he holds.

His latest utterances about 150 MPs and four Chief Ministers having met him to persuade him not to go ahead with the Government's decision to present pictorial admonishment of the ill effects of smoking, has sent shock waves among many people. Is he trying to project himself as a crusader for the anti-tobacco cause? Why is he refusing to name any of them? He says he does not want to sensationalise the issue! When his statement already sensationalises the issue!

Does he want to have the cake and eat it too! After all, there are always lobbies, which put up their case before the government for a favourable decision on an issue that benefits them; there are others, who would be adversely affected by such a decision, lobby against it. The government takes its own decision depending on several considerations; it could be symbolic (to project a people-friendly image), it could be political (to serve the interests of the vote bank), or it could be pecuniary (to make money for the ruling party and its leaders).

The minister can reasonably claim that the anti-tobacco decision is in the people's interest. But then the government notified its decision on the pictorial representation of the ill effects of tobacco use in July last year; it was to take effect from February 1 this year. Many smelled a rat when the minister kept deferring the deadline on one pretext or another. Suspicions that efforts to strike a deal with the pro-tobacco lobby, also surfaced.

The minister however claimed that despite strong political pressure he did not succumb. In order to give authenticity to his claim, he even conjured up a figure to describe the extent of pressure from the political colleagues -- 150 MPs and four chief ministers. What was the purpose behind making this statement? Just to sensationalise the matter so that he could project himself as a crusader. In his tug of war against the AIIMS director, the minister has almost turned the union health ministry into the Ministry for Venugopal Affairs. No one could miss the glee on his face on the day the Lok Sabha passed a bill restricting the age limit for the director of the AIIMS so that Venugopal could be eased out.

And what explanation he gave justifying such a Bill? One, he had visited John Hopkins and Harvard and he wanted to lift the AIIMS to that level of excellence. He dropped big names, but winks at the fact that at Johns Hopkins and Harvard, or for that matter, Stanford, there is no limit on age or tenure for the head of the institution. There is complete autonomy of these institutions from political interference.

Ramadoss is seeking to undermine that autonomy (see the provision in the bill that the AIIMS director can be thrown out by the minister with a three-month notice or pay in 'public interest').

Clearly, Ramadoss lacks the intellectual acuity to lift the AIIMS to the level of Harvard and John Hopkins. A man of his calibre can only ensure that the AIIMS hurtles down the path of degeneration.

The second argument that Ramadoss adduced to justify the Bill was that Venugopal was hardly able to walk. That in order to be a good administrator, one needed to be a fit person. Good argument. But then why not extend the same logic to the man to whom the minister and his father pay habitual obeisance as their ultimate benefactor, M Karunanidhi. He is ruling over
an entire state, a state of the size and significance of Tamil Nadu. That is certainly a million time more trying assignment than running a medical institution, even if it is the AIIMS. But, how fit a man Karunanidhi is who needs support on both sides to barely walk? Compared to Karunanidhi, Venugopal would be deemed a sprinter. Why doesn't the minister tell
Karunanidhi to demit office and enjoy splendid retirement? But Ramadoss knows where his bread is buttered. And that exposes his double standards.

Ramadoss is not only guilty of speaking with forked tongue, his record of financial management of his ministry is also under a cloud. The Indian Express (September 5, 2007) reported that "The World Bank's internal anti-corruption unit has alleged widespread corruption, including 'witness statements' that kickbacks were paid to Ministers and officials of the Union Health Ministry, in its multi-million-dollar projects to reduce maternal and infant mortality." The report went on to say that projects worth $2 billion were "beset with corruption or were at risk."

The Express report documented the main findings of the report, submitted by the Bank's Department of Institutional Integrity as follows:

• Routine kickbacks paid to government officials at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; "oral testimony" by witnesses of kickbacks to Ministers.
•PSUs, appointed as procurement agencies, Kerala-based Hindustan Latex and HSCC Limited, sought bribes, (three to 15 per cent of contract value), sold competitors' bid information, punished companies that were not corrupt and even routed companies' bribes to ministry officials.
•Bidders colluded to win the majority of contracts among themselves at significantly above-market prices – for example 62 per cent more than market price was paid for Folic Acid tablets;
•Quality of drugs was sub-standard and quantities less than required; syringes and hypodermics were sourced from unlicensed Chinese suppliers.

The report clearly establishes that the minister is not only suspected of serious acts of corruption but also is an accomplice in endangering public health.

Is this the kind of a Minister, who is accused of being corrupt, deceitful and self-serving, who should be in charge of the all-too-important health ministry?

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