•Suman K. Jha: Yoga gurus are politically active, most often supporting Hindu politics. Still, you are willing to share a dais with Ramdev?
I am out of politics on issues of health. Swami or non-swami, I will support anyone propagating yoga.
•Ravish Tiwari: During the reservation debate, most of the protests were from medical students, the least from engineering students. That’s because there are many more engineering colleges than medical ones. What are you doing to solve this?
There are about 275 medical colleges in India. Of these, 175 are in six southern states. The remaining 100 are spread across the country. UP has only 16 colleges for a population of 18 crore, Bihar has six functional medical colleges for a population of nine crore. MP has eight for eight crore people. Orissa had only three till recently—now it has six. The northeast does not have any medical colleges. We are trying start a lot of colleges by changing the regulation of the Medical Council of India. We are focusing on the north-eastern states by relaxing norms so that corporates can establish colleges. But the problem is with government colleges which depend on Chief Ministers’ initiatives. In different states, the CMs have different priorities and health is often not one.
•Shailaja Bajpai: Do you want to clarify your stand on AIIMS and Dr Venugopal?
As for the AIIMS issue and the doctors’ agitation, I want to clarify that AIIMS was not a fight between Dr Venugopal and Dr Ramadoss. AIIMS is India’s premier institute and our vision for AIIMS is that it should be like Johns Hopkins or Harvard in the US. I do not have anything against Dr Venugopal but someone heading an institution like AIIMS should be more proactive rather than letting others run the show. People did not hear my side of what was happening at AIIMS. Before the agitation, the same RDA (resident doctors’ association) and the same faculty members gave me letters saying that they wanted Dr Venugopal removed. He was appointed director at the age of 62, going against all norms.
... contd.
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