India must
be the only place in the world where a guy who would have been a minister or a
member of the local assembly for even one day would be able to generate quite a
lot of clout and influence.
We have
quite a lot of experience with this sort of thing.
2 incidents
over the last one week.
The first
one was a patient on whom wehad diagnosed astrocytoma. The relatives came to me
for a letter requesting for some funds for treatment in a tertiary hospital,
addressed to a local leader who was once upon a time a member of the
legislative assembly (MLA) as well as minister at some point of time. I gave
them a letter.
Couple of
days later, the relatives were back. It seems that the leader’s secretary did
not like the way I addressed the letter. I had addressed the letter to ‘Mr. XY,
Former Minister/MLA’. It seems that the leader did not like that address. He
had to be addressed as ‘Mr. XY, Minister and MLA in spite of the fact that it
has been quite some time since he has seen has seen the corridors of power.
I did not
have time to debate about the propriety of such an address in my letter. I gave
a changed version of the letter as requested.
To my
horror, the relatives were back again after couple of days. It seems that they
got information that the leader to whom I wrote the letter did not have much of
a clout these days as the state was in President’s rule. They wanted another
letter to be addressed to another leader who thankfully happened to be a
sitting Member of Parliament.
I was glad
that I could remain true to my letter now.
The second
incident occurred couple of days back. There was this young girl who was
brought to us with a diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis with acute episodes on
and off. I was not sure on what to do. I explained to the relatives that we
would prefer that she goes to a higher centre.
The
relatives promised to take her the next day to Ranchi.
But, I got
a call in the evening that a minister wanted to talk to me. I went to the ward.
I asked the girl’s father about who the minister was. He gave me one name. I
told him that there should be no minister now considering into fact that the
state was under President’s rule. He argued with me saying the name of the
department the said minister was heading.
Soon, he
was dialing a number. I was given the phone.
The
transcript of the conversation –
Myself:
Good evening, Mr. XYZ. What can I do for you?
‘Minister’:
That fellow who has given the phone to you is either a fool or a lunatic. I
wonder why I need to talk to you. Have a good evening, doctor’.
Myself: OK
(Tthik hai).
I wished
that I could tell the patient’s father the contents of the conversation.
It’s a pity
that our political leadership has been using the poor to further their
political ends and how illiteracy and ignorance are carefully safeguarded so
that they remain in power.
