Business as usual modi’fied

The “hundred days” yardstick for the performance of a new government has always struck me as illogical. Surely, in this period, only the introduction of new policies can be reviewed; implementation and efficacy requiring more time. I was bemused to find that the practice dates back to the great depression of 1933 and the Franklin Roosevelt presidency. Urgent results were imperative to save the nation; needing assessment at one hundred days. Strangely, the practice, survived; nevertheless a review of developments is interesting.

“The MCI is a den of corruption” thundered the new Union Health Minister; hats off for calling a spade a spade. But what did he do about it? Nothing; total impotence inspite of the MCI Act permitting intervention by the government in the face of a problem. Immediate and summary action will be taken, promised the HM in response to a sting operation showing rampant cut practice. Till date not a single FIR has been filed; not even an attempt at an enquiry, let alone remedial action.

An NGO “People for Better Treatment” (PBT) has filed a PIL in the Supreme Court seeking immediate CBI investigation of the MCI election held on 10th December, 2013 in which the MCI president, vice-president and members of the important Executive and PG Committees were elected “unopposed”. Strong supportive evidence has been provided that the election was rigged. Two members of the committee, Drs. Devendra Gupta and Balvir Tomar complained that “in a dinner party hosted by Dr Ketan Desai at the IMA House in New Delhi, the night before the MCI election, a printed listed was circulated containing the names of specific candidates who would be elected as MCI president, vice-president and EC/PG Committee members next day”. That list predetermined the outcome very accurately. The PIL has also sought urgent intervention of the Apex Court to declare Section 3 of Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 (under which election is held) unconstitutional since it permits formation of MCI where most members are “nominated” by the central/state government (U/S 3.1a-b) with genuinely “elected” members by registered doctors from different States U/S 3.1c becoming a minority. Immediate dissolution of the rigged top MCI positions, including president/vice-president and Executive/PG Committee members has been prayed for, with criminal prosecution of those individuals who were involved in the rigging process, including Dr Desai.

The plot thickens. In a published news report, the MCI vice-president, Dr Bhirmanandam, in an interview confirmed the primary allegation of a dinner party hosted by Dr Ketan Desai at the IMA House in New Delhi on December 9, 2013 the night before MCI election. He also confirmed a printed listed was circulated containing the names of candidates who would be elected as MCI president, vice-president and EC/PG Committee members next day. His white-wash? “no one opposed these names” during the election.

It gets more interesting. Dr Ketan Desai has been selected to be president of the World Medical Association (WMA) for 2016. It turns out that Dr Ajay Kumar (presently a member of the MCI Ethics Committee and chairman of “Grievance Committee”) went before WMA Assembly last year with a letter from the IMA claiming that the CBI had dropped all charges against Dr Desai who should therefore be reinstated as WMA president (he was earlier chosen as WMA president-elect in 2009 prior to his arrest by CBI in 2010). In fact, two criminal cases are still pending against Dr Ketan Desai.

“Love jihad” was a new addition to the election sloganeering lexicon during the “hundred days”. It transpires that the term took hold in 2009, when an 18-year-old girl fell in love with a 24-year-old man from Chamarajnagar, Karnataka, whom she met a year before. When the father, formally approached for the daughter’s hand in marriage, refused permission, the two eloped. A story that has been replayed over the centuries the world over. An interim report filed by the DG of police stated “there seems to be no prima facie evidence of ‘love jihad’. The HC in Karnataka closed the case in November 2013 after the court declared that the girl was free to go anywhere she wished. She chose to stay with her husband.

The expression was lapped up by the looney fringe in UP and is defined as “a movement to convert vulnerable girls to Islam”. Apparently, not much credit is attached to the intelligence of the girls involved, and presumes them incapable of making any independent choices. Even in UP, the IG (Law & Order) A K Sengar, states “we have never found any particular pattern that can establish any such conspiracy”. A division bench of the HC ordered a CID probe, which found that of the 21890 cases investigated, 229 had married, with conversion in 63 cases. Of these 229 cases, 149 were Hindus married to Muslim men, 10 were Hindus married to Christians, 38 Muslim and 20 Christian girls married Hindu boys; and 11 Christian girls had married Muslim boys. The CID DGP D V Guruprasad reported that “there is no organized attempt by any group to entice girls from Hindu or Christian religions, to marry Muslim boys with the aim of converting them to Islam”. During the investigation, the CID even approached the SRS leader who launched the “Beti Bachao Andolan” for evidence in support; none was forthcoming.

Most interestingly the 18-year-old’s father in Karnataka now states “it was never about ‘love jihad’ or religion or anything. We only wanted to show we cared.”

But the looney fringe continued; “profits from beef exports are being used to fund terrorist activities” shrieked Maneka Gandhi. When challenged to produce evidence and confronted with facts and figures, she meekly declared that this was what she had been told! But then what can one expect from someone who puts the welfare of rabid dogs above that of the human beings bitten by it.

Against this background, the PM’s interview with Fareed Zakaria should have come as a breath of fresh air. Or was it a case of the proverbial “good cop, bad cop” routine? Or the Jekyll and Hyde syndrome? A moderate face for international consumption, with the looney fringe given free rein and running amok on the domestic front with their outrageous and baseless sloganeering to whip up sentiments for cheap votes. There can be only one of  so many explanations: i) the PM has no control and functions at the behest of other forces ii)  this is a cleverly contrived part of a diabolical strategy to gain votes or iii) the PM couldn’t care less as long as his chair is unaffected. Whichever it is, his silence places the country at dangerous crossroads.

(Dr Gladstone D'Costa is the Chairman, 

Accreditation Committee and member, 

Executive Committee, Goa Medical Council)