On February 12, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad sent out a letter to all deans and principals of medical and dental colleges situated in different parts of the country. In retrospect, it did appear to be an unusual letter from a minister.
In that letter, the minister said that it had come to his notice that some persons claiming to be close to him were approaching medical as well as dental colleges with the promise that they could ensure approval or recognition of their colleges for both under-graduation and post-graduation courses for the 2010-11 academic year. The apparent purpose behind the minister’s move to send out the letter was to inform them “categorically” that he had not authorised any individual or organisation to approach any medical and dental college on his behalf for such permissions.
The letter contained another interesting directive. It asked the medical and dental colleges to call the minister on his phone, or inform him through a fax letter or e-mail him (the letter listed the minister’s phone numbers and his personal e-mail address) if anybody approached them on his behalf or on behalf of the Medical Council of India (MCI) or the Dental Council of India. There was even an assurance of necessary action from the minister against those approaching these colleges with such unusual offers.
Finally, the minister’s letter reiterated his desire to maintain absolute transparency in the functioning of his ministry. A warning followed. “If any college authority entertains such middlemen or brokers, it will be viewed seriously and I would not hesitate to take stringent and stern action, including withdrawal of the recognition and debarring from admitting a new batch of students for a year or two,” the letter warned.
It is not clear what response the minister’s letter may have evoked from the medical and dental colleges. However, its significance must have dawned on everybody last Thursday, when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested the president of the Medical Council of India (MCI), Dr Ketan Desai, in a Rs 2-crore bribery case. In addition to the MCI president, the CBI also arrested three more persons, all of whom were alleged to be middlemen from a medical college based in Patiala. The CBI case rested on its finding that the MCI president had granted permission to a medical college to start admissions in violation of existing rules in return for monetary considerations.
Did the minister have an inkling of the financial malpractices that afflicted the system of granting permissions to medical and dental colleges for starting operations? It would certainly appear so if the February 12 letter from Azad is any indication. If the minister was aware of such malpractices, several questions arise. It was clear from his letter that he knew that his name was being used to secure irregular clearances for medical and dental colleges. If he knew that his name was being misused, was a simple letter warning the medical and dental colleges enough? Or was it simply a convenient ploy to keep his own name out of a potential scandal? It would be interesting to know what concrete steps the minister for health and family welfare took to cleanse the corrupt system, apart from warning the medical and dental colleges.
It might be argued that the CBI action against the middlemen from the Patiala medical college and the MCI president was the outcome of a ministerial initiative only. And his letter (which was put up on the ministry’s website and given due publicity by his staff in March this year) to the medical and dental colleges was part of the same ministerial strategy. However, several weeks lapsed between February 12 and April 22. Did the minister wait for an opportune moment for some middlemen to fall into the trap and vindicate the stand he took in his letter? Why didn’t he use the intervening period to clean up the system and put in place checks and balances to prevent such malpractices from taking place?
Yet another disturbing development pertains to the manner in which the health and family welfare minister responded to the CBI action last Thursday. Immediately after the CBI arrests on April 22, Azad said the government had no plan to remove Ketan Desai as MCI president as the Council was an elected body and it was up to the Council to take such a decision. “The government can neither elect nor remove the MCI president,” Azad had said. This may be the correct position. But surely the government cannot remain a passive bystander if the country’s medical and dental colleges are run by a regulatory body in violation of all known codes of conduct and good governance. Sending out letters of warning is not enough. Ministers must also initiate steps to fix the problems in the system.