Ramadoss said 13-3 in AIIMS board voted to sack Venugopal, seven say they don’t agree

A close scrutiny of the board’s composition and interviews with members confirm that two members were absent; a third, Venugopal himself, was asked to stay away from the meeting. This reduced the board to 14. While three came out in open support of Venugopal, four others have now told The Sunday Express that they did not vote the way the Minister makes it out to be. And those who backed the Minister were his handpicked members who report to him.

In short, at least half of the board members present did not endorse a confrontation with Venugopal.

Formed by an Act of Parliament in 1956, AIIMS was set up as “a body” whose composition is defined by law. The current board was constituted in February 2005—the previous one had finished its five-year term in November 2004—when Ramadoss was the Health Minister.

The original Act has no provision for the Health Minister to be part of the board but Ramadoss nominated himself as president. In this, he was sticking to tradition—since 1983, Health Ministers have foisted themselves onto the board.

Consider the following:

Clause 4 (E) of the Act says that ‘‘five persons of whom one shall be a non-medical scientist representating the Indian Science Congress Association, to be nominated by the Central government.’’

1,2,3: Under this, Ramadoss chose himself, his sister’s father-in-law Dr A Rajashekaran and his Secretary P K Hota, all of whom backed the resolution to sack Venugopal. For Rajashekaran, a urologist, this is his second term on the board. He was in the previous body as well, appointed by then Health Minister T Shanmugham, of the same PMK party as Ramadoss.

4: The “non-medical” Science Congress representative was Prof B P Chatterjee, biochemistry professor at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata. When contacted by The Sunday Express, Chatterjee, said: “I told them I can’t vote in favour of the resolution. We requested that the issue be settled amicably. There was no voting so there is no question of my voting for it.”

5: Nilima Kshirsagar, Dean of Mumbai’s KEM hospital: Absent. Declined to comment.

Four representatives of medical faculties of Indian universities nominated by Ramadoss:

6: K K Talwar, PGI, Chandigarh, Director, who is considered to be in the running for Venugopal’s post: Opposed Venugopal, declined to comment.

7:: Kartar Singh, Director, Sanjay Gandhi institute in Lucknow: “Nobody voted for anybody there. I asked for the issue to be settled mutually. How can I vote against Dr Venugopal? He is my friend, he did my operation.”

8: R Surendran, professor of gastroenterology at Chennai’s Stanley Hospital: Declined to comment

9: S S Agarwal, chief, Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow: “Dr Venugopal is a highly respectable, talented and decorated medical professional who has dedicated his life to his patients. He should have got an appropriate chance to explain.”

10: Dr S K Srivastava, Director General Health Services (ex-officio member), backed the resolution: ‘‘Court is supreme they must have looked into the merit of the case.’’

11: Raghuveer Singh, Finance Ministry nominee: Unavailable for comment.

12: Dr Karan Singh Yadav, Congress MP (nominated by party): ‘‘It’s an unfortunate episode and I wouldn’t like to comment. All I can say is courts are supreme and we have to respect them.’’

13: R K Dhawan, Congress MP (nominated by party): “The Health Minister did not ask us one by one. All I can say I was for reconciliation and an honourable settlement by both sides.”

14: Delhi University Vice Chancellor Deepak Pental (ex-officio member): Opposed the resolution: “Dr Venugopal needs to be given a chance to explain.”

15: V K Malhotra, BJP MP (party nominee): “We told the Minister that the procedure he is following can’t stand in court of law. Now the court has to probe how he bullied the members by taking the Prime Minister’s name. We have sent a letter to the PM signed by former PM A B Vajpayee and L K Advani.”

16: Sudeep Banerjeee, HRD nominee: Absent; unavailable for comment.

17: P Venugopal (nominated by law): asked to step out of the meeting.