Ramadoss gets the cold shoulder

Even Cong leaders are now giving him a wide berth.

NEW DELHI: Union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss brazen ways to remove AIIMS director P Venugopal has left him with very few admirers across the political spectrum. Barring the hardcore pro-Mandal parties, who prefer to spin the AIIMS controversy around the reservation issue, Ramadoss stands isolated.

The Congress is already trying to distance itself from the whimsical actions of the PMK leader and health minister. It is not incidental that the Congress leader RK Dhawan on Wednesday chose to “abstain” when Ramadoss asked the AIIMS governing council for an opinion on Venugopal. After the three members recorded their dissent, Dhawan distanced himself.

On Thursday it was Congress leader and former Kerala chief minister AK Antony who in an unprecedented move drafted the resolution, passed by the Parliamentary standing committee on health and family welfare “deploring” the minister’s action and asking the government to “review” the decision.

The 35-member parliamentary standing committee is dominated by UPA and Left members. A member who attended the meeting said “the significance of the resolution should be viewed in view of the fact that never before has a standing committee passed a resolution deploring an executive action of the government.”

Sources said Antony was initially hesitant to place anything on record but finally yielded to the pressure mounted by two BJP MPs.