BJP delegation met President A P J Abdul Kalam and sought dismissal of Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss over the move to sack AIIMS chief P Venugopal.
NEW DELHI: A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) delegation on Thursday met President A P J Abdul Kalam and sought dismissal of Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss and an apology from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the move to sack AIIMS chief P Venugopal, which it termed an insult to the country's academia.
"Our party's medical cell believes that the Prime Minister should tender an unconditional apology. Ramadoss should also be sacked immediately as the Health Minister's action against Venugopal amounts to insult to the entire intellectual community," BJP leader Sushma Swaraj told reporters after meeting Kalam here.
Delhi BJP chief Harsh Vardhan, himself a doctor and part of the party delegation that called on the President, also insisted the Prime Minister owed an apology to the nation for what he called was a humiliating move against the country's entire medical community.
In his comments after meeting Kalam, senior party leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra, one of the institute's Governing Council members who opposed Ramadoss' recommendation against the AIIMS chief, said he apprised the President about how the Health Minister violated norms while proposing dismissal of Venugopal.
The BJP leaders said they requested the President to direct the government that the cabinet committee on appointments must decline approval to the recommendation to sack the AIIMS chief.
"The President himself is leader of the intellectual community. We voiced the pain and the concerns of the same intellectual community over Ramadoss' move against Venugopal," Swaraj, a former Union Health Minister, said.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}