P.V. Indiresan, former director of IIT Madras, has for long told it like it is. He has a fine piece in today’s Indian Express on the Anbumani Ramadoss-motivated move to get rid of AIIMS director P. Venugopal:
“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… 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. Ministers have arrogated to themselves the Absolute Right to deform the Constitution in any way they like… 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).
I am the Oracle
We have seen several examples of the career bureaucrats becoming ministers playing havoc in weilding power arrogating to themselves that they are the best to know what policy initiatives have to be taken. In fact, they nurse contempt to the politicians that they know nothign about professinal adminstration.This is the same story operating in the case of Minister for Health Mr Ambumani Ramdoss , a doctor by profession who has succeded in sacking the world renowned cardioligist Mr P.Venugopal who was the director of AIIMS. In fact to be fair to the politicians there was a healthy relationship as long as ICS cadre existed. But with coming in of IAS slowly rot set in because it is they with the exception of few who advised the ministers how to be corrupt because it suited both and thus minister-bureaucratic nexus started which has now taken deep roots. In the case of Ramdoss it is not only the professional jealousy but caste also has played a stellar role. If the professionals have allowed themseves to be content to play a secondary role who can blame the politicins? Mr Indiresan has traced the genesis of the malaise that afflicts India in his excellent article. As matter stands I wonder whether PM will do anything to redeem his reputation. Not likely, it appers.
oh! So Prof. Indiresan has started writing for Indian Express after being banished from The Hindu!
Almost all the people “banished” from The Hindu, take refuge in Indian Express, it reminds me of Chitra Subramaniam, who was sacked from The Hindu after her Bofors Exposé.
i read the piece, wasn’t really impressed. to make a simple point you don’t really have to scan the history of world democracy. by the way, it is not a homogenous system.
Apropos the article captioned “Today is is AIIMS” by P V Indiresan in the New Indian Express whose righteous indignation against the dismissal lof the AIIMS director Dr. P. Venugopal is well-placed. He has spewed anger against the spineless and servile behaviour of the professional members of the Governing Council of the AIIMS who chose to toe the line with the politicians in recommending the dismissal of Dr. P. Venugopal instead of standing their ground in support of their professional brethren. Tracing the origin of constitutionalism he has highlighted one of its milestones–the Bill of Rights–and has bemoaned how our politicians have scant respect for and hence play ducks and drakes with the constitution. He feels that the villain of the piece is the principle vehemently espoused by our Parliamentarians that “Parliament is supreme” and the Parliament can dictate any way it wishes.
The principle of the supremacy of the Parliament which is borrowed from the British model lmeans that legally te Parliament can do anything and everything except making a man a woman and a woman a man! Further, in theory it is so omnipotent jthat nothing prevents it from enacting a law to the effect that all those who are below the height of five feet or above 70 years of age must be killed! But in actual practice the Parliament cannot do so because the Parliamentarians must be mad before they could enact such a piece of legislation and the people must be idiotic before they could obey such laws. I am sure that neither our Parliamentarians are mad nor we the people are idiotic!!
However I quite agree with Mr. Indiresan that “Today it is AIIMS” and I am afraid that “Tomorrow it is ANY OF US!”