Daily Briefing: Bypassing Ayushman Bharat, doctor dupes patients at top Central hospital; Monsoon session to begin today; and more

Bypassing Ayushman Bharat, a doctor at top Central hospital allegedly duped several patients and usurped Rs 2.7 crore for implants over two years, an Express Investigation has found. A report by Kaunain Sheriff M and Ankita Upadhyay

Despite being beneficiaries of Ayushman Bharat, the patients were allegedly told that getting clearance would take months, while they needed surgery immediately. When asked whether they could purchase them from another source, they were told there would be an issue with the quality.

🚨 Big Story

On the eve of Monsoon Session that begins today, the Opposition parties sought to corner the government in Parliament over the Manipur situation, the Centre countered with a demand for discussion on the violence during the recent panchayat polls in West Bengal.

Two days after the multi-party anti-BJP Opposition front was given the name INDIA, the parliamentary leaders of the alliance will meet today to decide on a common floor strategy. While almost all the Opposition parties are seeking a discussion on the Manipur situation, the parties are keen to raise several other issues as well. 

📰 From the Front Page

A video showing two women from the Kuki-Zomi community being paraded naked by a mob of men and being sexually assaulted has been doing the rounds since Wednesday, bringing to light an incident which took place in Manipur more than two months ago, evoking sharp reactions from across the political spectrum.

Describing the “findings” of the Gujarat High Court denying bail to activist Teesta Setalvad as “totally perverse” and “contradictory”, the Supreme Court Wednesday granted her regular bail. Setalvad has been accused of fabricating evidence linked to the 2002 Gujarat riots to implicate senior government functionaries.

A fully operational factory will be in place in Vadodara in Gujarat by November 2024 from where the first Indian-made C295 military transport aircraft will start rolling out 2026 onward, senior Airbus officials have said. The facility will be similar to the sprawling 1.2 million-sqm Airbus factory in Seville in Spain.

👩‍💻 Must read

On June 12, Dr Amit Vatkar was on his daily rounds in Ghatkopar’s civic-run Rajawadi Hospital when his phone lit up with a message: an abandoned newborn had been rescued by the Powai Police and needed immediate medical attention. The newborn, her umbilical cord intact, had weakened breathing and her body had started turning blue when she was brought to Rajawadi. This is the story of how baby Khushi was nursed back to health a month after she was found.

In his latest column, Suhas Palshiker notes that the new Opposition front still has an uphill task at hand, electorally and otherwise: “Mere Modi-baiting is not going to be a convincing answer. The BJP’s politics runs on three narratives — an authoritarian personality cult, narrative of vikas and a less visible narrative of Hindutva and exclusion. The Opposition will need a realistic and intelligible critic of the former two without focusing on the persona of Modi and a quiet sub-text of inclusion. Only then, the language of “idea of India” will resonate with the voter.”

The dramatic life and conflicted mind of the American physicist J Robert Oppenheimer are ideal ingredients for an epic thriller of the kind Christopher Nolan is known for. Ahead of the opening of the year’s biggest film, here is a brief account on the life of an extraordinary scientist, and his road to becoming the ‘father of the atomic bomb’.

⌛ And finally…

As he prepares for the Trinidad Test starting Thursday, Ajinkya Rahane may be chuckling to himself thinking about selectors’ whims. Kept out of the Test side after a prolonged lean phase, he was almost the forgotten man in Indian cricket, till he played some swashbuckling knocks for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League.

After the unprecedented rise in the level of water in the Yamuna, and the subsequent flooding in Delhi last week, the Central Public Works Department on Wednesday set up teams to “de-water” and restore the Samadhi Complex, which, too, was inundated. Don’t miss today’s Delhi Confidential for more!

In the latest edition of our 3 Things podcast, we speak with Kaunain Sheriff, who led the Express Investigation into how a senior doctor, his accomplices, and a nexus of middlemen at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital duped patients, whose medical expenses were covered under the Centre’s flagship public health insurance scheme — the Ayushman Bharat Yojana.

Until next time,

Anamni Gupta and Ayesha Jain