The moment the order of Venugopal's sacking was made public, resident doctors, students, karamcharis and nurses went on strike.
NEW DELHI: The two-year-old battle between Union Health Minister and President, AIIMS, Anbumani Ramadoss, and AIIMS director, P Venugopal, reached its climax on Wednesday with Ramadoss sacking Venugopal.
The moment the order was made public, AIIMS went on a flash strike. Resident doctors, students, karamcharis and nurses rallied behind their director. Emergency services were suspended and patients were discharged arbitrarily. No new patients were admitted.
The battle between the two had escalated in the past few months due to the reservation protests. Ramadoss had alleged that AIIMS was becoming a political hub, while Venugopal had accused Ramadoss of trying to take away the autonomy of AIIMS. The immediate provocation to the termination, though, was the Director's speech to the students and faculty where he had expressed his dissatisfaction with the way the institute was being run.
Venugopal has been sacked on charges of violating the service conduct rule no 9 ---- criticising the government at the institute's governing body meeting chaired by Ramadoss. Towards the end of the meeting, Ramadoss asked Venugopal to leave the conference room and declared his intentions of moving the resolution.
The governing body then passed the resolution despite three members expressing their dissent. BJP MP VK Malhotra, one of the dissenters, took strong offence to the fact that a top cardiologist of the country was sacked without being given a chance to defend himself.
"This move is illegal, arbitrary, draconian and unconstitutional, which would even put Emergency days to shame," added Malhotra. His principal objection was that the issue was not listed on the agenda, neither was any inquiry against him.
However, the decision on Venugopal's sacking has to be ratified by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.
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