Pulse of the nation

The doctors agitating against reservations were there to remind the government that reverse discrimination is always fatal for equality.

The doctors striking against reservations were heroic in their unflagging endurance and commitment. They did not strike for their own sake but in support of the students who took up the cause of equity. The media are wide of the mark in suggesting that the strike was suspended because of the threat of contempt of court action by the Supreme Court or the somewhat reckless and arrogant one made by Union Health Minister A Ramadoss.

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To put the record straight, the striking doctors unequivocally told me, as their counsel, that they would resign en masse to puncture the arrogance of power articulated by Ramadoss. The latter, who'd already terminated the services of some doctors, had threatened the same for all.

Ramadoss should have known that the better part of valour is patience and discretion in such situations. I told the Supreme Court that many doctors had burnt their certificates and were prepared to turn to other vocations rather than live with the indignity and brutalisation unleashed upon them by the government. Neither the fear of jail nor the threat of termination of service deterred the doctors.

It is not widely known that the striking doctors were supporting the anti-reservation stir not for themselves, for they were already in service and had no axe to grind. When I returned their brief at midnight because they were adamant in refusing to heed the SC's advice, I told them that I respected their agitation and their cause, but they should have trust and faith in the SC to balance the claims of equity and social equity.

Apropos of the threats of imprisonment and termination of service, the doctors were unruffled because they felt that they had reached a point of no return with the Union government. "An injustice is an injustice," they said, adding, "We would rather die for the cause than to abandon it." I reasoned with them that the SC could be trusted to go into the students' charter of demands fairly. I told them that they were, after all, agitating to protect constitutional values. And respect for the Supreme Court was a part of those values. Besides, the Hippocratic oath had committed them to a higher moral and constitutional law of humanitarian service. Reason, and not fear, prevailed on them when they agreed to submit to the court.

Let the government, the people and especially the media make no mistake. Let them not be misguided by the notion that threats and fears worked. Indeed, there was no carrot, and the stick would have failed to work. What did, in fact, work was the appeal to their professional ethics and their native nobility.

It was simply a victory of the Constitution, a vote of confidence in the Supreme Court and an affirmation of citizenship values. In the event, we succeeded in averting a serious crises, but no thanks to Ramadoss and no thanks to Arjun Singh or their government.

Obviously, the problem will not be solved by the mock tokenism of the Health Minister visiting the OPD. The problem will not be solved by agitations and counter agitations. The government, in a democratic society governed by rule of law, must have humility and sensitivity.

In the event, the government and the ministers thought that police repression would solve the problem. They preferred to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the Constitution and the Supreme Court. The danger of that attitude of insensitivity is that governance would lose its democratic legitimacy. Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and the other leaders of political parties at the apex have their task cut out for them at this critical juncture.

Let us not forget the wise words of Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi on this issue. Let us not push those views and words into the oblivion. Let us not forget Jagjivan Ram's legacy of 'social justice without confrontation' and Ambedkar’s integrated, constitutional vision and his sage counsel: that reservation or affirmative action should never be allowed to eclipse the centrality of the doctrine of equality. The concept of equality is indeed like the sun in the solar constellation of our constitutional values.

Finally, let the government remember (irrespective of their party or political complexion) that reverse discrimination is always fatal for equality, human dignity and secularism.