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?No politics, please!?
SACKING OF the Director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) apparently has induced a feeling of disappointment in the faculty members, doctors, para-medics and other staff members of the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS).
SACKING OF the Director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) apparently has induced a feeling of disappointment in the faculty members, doctors, para-medics and other staff members of the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS).
They think that such interference by politicians and bureaucrats will trigger degeneration of established centres of excellence.
Incidentally, SGPGIMS like AIIMS too is facing a clash-like situation. The only difference is that at AIIMS, the clash was with a politician while here it’s with a bureaucrat. And in both the places clashes began during the time of anti-reservation campaigns at these institutes. At both the places, functioning got affected to a significant extent.
Meanwhile, since Wednesday when the news about Dr P Venugopal’s sacking flashed, SGPGIMS-ites have been discussing the issue hotly. So disturbed the doctors are about ‘interference’ that they are even discussing the issue with their colleagues abroad on e-mail and phones.
“Politicians are always right in India even if they are wrong. Intellectuals, even if they are right may suffer the fate of being wrong,” says an overseas doctor.
Most of the faculty members of SGPGIMS have some close AIIMS connections. Either they have studied super-specialties at AIIMS or have served as faculty members there, too.
“The centres of excellence like AIIMS, all the PGIs, IIMs, IITs should be insulated from political and bureaucratic interference. They should be protected from any scope of interference into their autonomy from politicians and bureaucrats. And government should understand that such highly skilled institutes could not be developed easily. A huge money goes into it. If my interference degeneration sets in at such a place, then recovery would be difficult,” says a very senior faculty member at SGPGIMS.
Another senior consultant says: “It is not the loss of Dr Venugopal. He will continue to be a doctor of repute. Nothing will happen to the minister either. He may become a bigger minister and bigger politician. But what will happen to the institute. Already a kind of exodus of doctors to private practice or abroad has started happening from such institutes. So ultimately it is the institutes that will suffer.”
There was no formal protest or strike as of now over the incident and the issue, however, Resident Doctors’ Association of SGPGIMS said that they support the agitation at the AIIMS.
