Obsessed with Venugopal

BACKSTAGE

People will have preferences. But when the elected representative of a billion population, half of them anaemic and underweight, acts whimsical with his priorities, then it is cause for worry. If that person happens to be the health minister of the country, and a doctor at that, more is the pity. Anbumani Ramdoss, currently in the news for denying degrees to students of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in a fresh chapter in the continuing saga of his personal feud with the director of the institute, has been obsessed with the politics of the institute, or rather with his dislike of the person heading it from day one. First he wanted him sacked, and had a running feud with him for months and now it has culminated in a Bill in Parliament which seeks to reduce the retirement age of the institute's directors so that the present director can leave.

While Ramdoss has been true to the description of him by a fellow MP of being a "minister for Venugopal affairs," his circle of preferences has also embraced a few other entities and issues as well""so it would be unfair to doubt his concern about the health of the country. He has been extremely critical of people who indulge in the pleasures of smoking, especially if they are film stars. The likes of Shah Rukh Khan were at the receiving end of his moral outrage as the Don spewed silvery rings of smoke all over the screen. He wanted such scenes censored and even asked for statutory warnings in films with such scenes.

But on the other hand, cola companies could not have found a better friend than Ramdoss as he was quite proactive in getting the pesticide allegations quashed. And, his ministry is yet to enforce final standards for pesticides in beverages, not to speak of enforcing labelling norms for food and drinks.

The son of S Ramdoss, the founder of Pattali Makkal Kakshi who fought for reservations for the Vannier community in Tamil Nadu, got an easy quota-based entry into medical education, and then, riding on his father's wings, into politics, but has been serious about neither. He has been chasing headlines so diligently that taking contradictory stands has not mattered to him.

First, it was his righteous indignation at Tamil actress Khusboo's statement espousing pre-marital sex when he went into sermonising mode about its ills, echoing the political vandals of his party who were then attacking the actress.

A few months ago, he was at the opposite end of the spectrum when he advocated vibrating condoms saying he was ready to take such a "bold stand" for the sake of HIV and population control.

He has been at the collar of the AIIMS director for some reason or the other, ever since he became minister. He never bothered to question the fact that the agitation against the quota was happening in the premises but recently became a champion of sorts for the Dalits after the Thorat committee came out with findings about rampant caste discrimination in the campus.

To be fair to the doctor, he is a great champion of technology. So even as the country's sex ratio worsens, Ramdoss does not bat an eyelid when multinational companies making ultrasound machines open shop in Chennai. He says the fault is with the people, not the technology.

The very fact that Ramdoss's career graph seems to begin and end with AIIMS makes it difficult to associate him with the interests and concerns of the rest of the country. High maternal mortality has been rising higher to which his only solution has been the posting of ASHA's semi-literate unpaid functionaries in the countryside to facilitate access to healthcare. It is a case of a doctor who evokes nothing but nirasha for this country's millions.