Today it is AIIMS

No outstanding professional institution has been successful under political control

The Governing Council of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences has recommended the dismissal of its director, Dr P. Venugopal. Such is the contempt that politicians have for the professional class that it has no fear of treating its most reputed members in any way they like. Politicians have no reason to worry about the professional class, because the Indian professional class has generally been servile. In the Council itself, members of the professional class would have voted for the removal of Venugopal, mortgaged their independence merely to please the minister. It would not have occurred to them that the same humiliation imposed on Venugopal can be inflicted on them too.

There was a time when people accepted the principle of the Divine Right of Kings. They accepted that, by the accident of birth alone, God had granted kings the right to rule, and rule absolutely. First in the American dominions and later in France, this concept was rejected and the idea of democracy took root. The Bill of Rights drafted by John Adams in 1780 codified the basic principles of democracy with the memorable words, all men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties8230;. The people have a right, in an orderly and peaceable manner to assemble to consult upon the common good; give instructions to their representatives, and to request of the legislative body, by way of address, petitions, or remonstrances, redress of the wrongs done to them, and of the grievances they suffer.

Two hundred and twenty years later, the progress of civilisation has been reversed in our country; a new Theory of Absolute Right to Rule has de facto come into existence, the Absolute Right of Ministers to Rule as they like. Deliberately, I am not quoting the Constitution of India 8212; which too confers similar rights 8212; because the same ministers have arrogated to themselves the Absolute Right to deform the Constitution in any way they like. For our parliamentarians the Constitution is not a sacred rule book; it is a plaything to be toyed with at will. Therefore, the issue is not merely legal, to be argued and fought in the courts; the issue is more basic; it is a question of human rights.

Rousseau is the one who proposed the idea of delegating the power to rule to elected representatives. At the same time, he emphasised that 8220;simply having power is not sufficient for that power to be morally legitimate8221;. Our parliamentarians have taken a contrary view. They have vehemently espoused the principle that 8220;Parliament is supreme8221;, that Parliament can dictate any way it wishes. There is little to choose between this idea and the Divine Right Theory of Kings.

World over, governments operate with two kinds of institutions: executive units and autonomous institutions. In the United States, the division of powers is taken to the logical limit: even executive and legislative powers are kept separate in different hands. In the parliamentary system, ministers bear dual responsibility 8212; they function both as legislators and as executives. Even then, strictly speaking, the executive authority is with the permanent civil servant who takes his oath to obey the Constitution and not to the minister. However, that principle is almost never observed: most civil servants accept the idea that they are personal servants of the minister.

That was not always so. Thirty years ago H.N. Ray, the then finance secretary, refused to show income tax files of some political opponents to his minister, T.T. Krishnamachari. Unfortunately, we no longer have civil servants of that calibre.

Professional institutions need autonomy because they have to pursue long-term goals whereas politicians operate with short-term priorities. There are few politicians who can think beyond the next election, the next bye-election even. On the other hand, professional institutions take long years to mature; they need to be insulated from the temporary pressures of the political class, and of the dictates of the ephemeral bureaucrats too who, like butterflies, flit from one department to another.

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Autonomy does not sanction liberty without responsibility. Autonomous institutions too are bound by discipline, the discipline imposed by peers. In the case of hospitals, the Indian Medical Association plays that role. In the present case, if the minister had his complaints, he should have asked the IMA to advise him, and accepted its advice. That is no reflection on the authority of the minister. Truly speaking, the authority of a minister depends on how great his institutions are, not how puny they are. Such autonomy is good for politicians too. Their prosperity depends on the quality of professional institutions. India would not be what it is today but for what the IITs and the IIMs have accomplished. No hospital, which has been perpetually interfered with by politicians, will have the capability to treat the same politicians when they suffer a heart attack or brain damage. Professional excellence does not thrive under a political shadow. There is not a single outstanding professional institution in the world that has operated successfully under political control.

Having said this, this situation would not have arisen if top professionals of the country had stood their ground. The country does have super-scientists who command exceptional influence. It is unlikely that they will take a public stand. They will bemoan the state of affairs in private, but in the presence of Authority, they will behave like Dronacharya. In India today, we are having the case of the fence eating the crops: the guardians of the Constitution are systematically destroying it. The political culture today is getting close to the decaying days of the Moghuls when local satraps became a law unto themselves. As the old saying goes: vinaasha kaale viparita buddhih when doom looms, intelligence runs contrary.

The writer is a former director of IIT, Chennai