NEW DELHI: The ordeal of the patients had started soon after the government decided to give 27 per cent reservations to students belonging to other backward classes. Medical students, resident doctors and senior consultants all across Delhi went on strike nearly two years ago, paralysing the medical facilities in the capital.
Students resorted to road blocks and clashed with the police to express their resentment. Anbumani Ramadoss had blamed Venugopal for instigating the strike and supporting students in the strike. The turf war between Ramadoss and Venugopal had started because of the reservation issue and the manner in which AIIMS had spearheaded the countrywide agitation against the government. Finally, doctors returned to work and the problems of the patients ended after the court intervened.
AIIMS has always been surrounded with controversies and troubled by political interference. The first incident came to notice 25 years ago, in 1980, when its then Director, Dr L P Agarwal, a senior professor in Ophthalmology, was removed in ‘public interest’ by the Congress government. He held the post only for one year and nine months and was never given any substitute posting after his removal.
In fact, he was not just removed but also given premature retirement. His fault: He was brought in by the Janata Party Health Minister Raj Narayan, the socialist leader who shot to fame for defeating Indira Gandhi in 1977.
Agarwal contested his dismissal but though the court did not re-instate him it ordered government to pay him full salary till his actual date of retirement. What was formed by an Act of Parliament in 1956 to provide best medical facility and impart best education without any interference and pressure from the political masters, has now been reduced to a playground for them.
From favouritism in appointments to regular interference in the functioning of the institute, politicians have managed to politicise AIIMS, leaving faculty and staff frustrated.
