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The abrupt transfer of health secretary Keshav Desiraju, merely a few months ahead of the general elections, has raised many eyebrows. While Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad calls the transfer “a regular affair”, officials in the know said differences between the senior bureaucrat and the minister were brewing for some time.
The transfer comes at a time when the US Food and Drug Administration’s Commissioner Margaret Hamburg is on a nine-day long visit to India. Hamburg met Azad and Desiraju on Monday and signed a statement of intent for collaborating in various health related areas.
Desiraju, the grandson of Dr S Radhakrishnan, is a 1978-batch IAS officer from Uttarakhand cadre. He was appointed health secretary less than a year ago. He joined the ministry as additional secretary in 2010, after completing his tenure as the Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand. In bureaucratic circles, Desiraju is known for his “impeccable honesty and integrity”.
According to some sources, the transfer could be linked to some of his (Desiraju’s) dissents. For instance, his unwillingness to accept Dr Ketan Desai, former Medical Council of India (MCI) president as a key functionary in the current medical council, may not have gone well with the government, a source said.
Desai, who has been accused of many wrongdoings and chargesheeted in several cases since 2001 and was removed from MCI in 2002 following a Delhi High Court order, was again nominated by Gujarat University for the reconstituted council last year. While Desai managed to get himself acquitted of these charges, he was charged again in 2010 by the CBI, while serving as the MCI Chairperson. He was arrested in April 2010 on charges of disproportionate assets and for allegedly receiving a Rs 2 crore bribe to give recognition to a private medical college based in Patiala.
The MCI had also suspended Desai's license to practice medicine as a consequence of these charges. While Desai has been cleared of many charges, all charges against him have not been dropped.
The source said Desiraju did not want to sanction the re-entry of Desai into MCI.
Officials indicate there were other areas of differences also between Desiraju and the government. According to a senior official, Desiraju was also against the ministry’s populist move to truncate MBBS course to create a special cadre of rural doctors. Indian Medical Association, the largest body of doctors in the country, also raised objections to the ministry’s proposal. However, sources said, Azad was keen to push the plan forward and overruled all objections.
When asked about the transfer, Azad told reporters, "These are administrative things. I don't think people should get into it. Officers’ and Ministers' portfolios change, it is a regular affair. He is a capable officer."
Following Desiraju’s transfer, the additional charge of the post of health Secretary has been given to Lov Verma, Secretary of Department of AIDS control.
Questioning Desiraju’s sudden transfer, Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, the Indian circle of the People's Health Movement and a coalition of over 20 networks and 1,000 organisations working on public health, said, “It is inconceivable that a routine transfer would be effected in such a precipitate manner….” Also, there is no evidence that Mr Desiraju’s services were urgently required in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, to which he has now been transferred, it added in a statement.
The health advocacy group also pointed out that the transfer is in violation of the Supreme Court's ruling in October 2013 when it asked state and central governments to take measures to insulate the bureaucracy from political pulls and pressures and to ensure fixed tenure for serving officers.
