Baba Farid University V-C Dr Raj Bahadur gets 'rude treatment' from Punjab Health Minister Jouramajra

Tribune News Service

Balwant Garg

Faridkot, July 29

Health Minister Chetan Singh Jouramajra has been caught in a tight spot after he asked Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) Vice-Chancellor (VC) Dr Raj Bahadur to lie on a “dirty” patient’s bed at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital here on Friday.

A video of the Minister “forcibly asking the Vice-Chancellor to lie on the bed” has been doing the rounds.

The Minister can be “heard speaking rudely” with the Vice-Chancellor over the lack of cleanliness in the medical college.

Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital is a constituent of the BFUHS.

Dr Raj Bahadur (71) is a noted spinal surgeon in the country, and Project Director and Member Secretary of the Regional Spinal Injuries Centre, Mohali. He is also a member of the National Medical Commission, the apex medical regulatory body in the country.

When contacted, Dr Bahadur said he did not want to go into the details of the incident. “I am feeling very low. I have worked in 13 highly prestigious institutions in the past 45 years of my medical profession in India and abroad, but never been treated like this,” he told The Tribune.

Doctors in the medical college and civil hospital in Faridkot expressed anguish over the incident. Dr Paramjit Singh Mann, state president of the Indian Medical Association, termed it the “most unfortunate incident”.

“Instead of improving the healthcare system, political leaders are humiliating doctors to gain some brownie points. They want to pose themselves as active ministers, but the reality is they are spoiling the system,” said Mann.

Dr GS Grewal, former president of the Punjab Medical Council, said the Health Minister had no right to question the Vice-Chancellor.

“The Vice-Chancellor is answerable to the Chancellor, who is the Governor, and not to the Minister. Instead of humiliating the Vice-Chancellor, and that too in the presence of his staff, the Minister should have raised the matter with the Governor,” he said.

Dr Grewal noted Dr Bahadur was among the top spinal surgeons in the world and had a waiting period of three months for a spinal surgery. “Humiliating such a person is the bankruptcy of our leaders.”

Political leaders across the political spectrum also hit out at Jouramajra.

Assembly Speaker and AAP MLA Kultar Singh Sandhwan termed the incident unfortunate. “We all are part of this system and should work as a team to improve the situation, which has been gradually rotting for the past many years,” he said.

Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring condemned the incident. “We are not living in a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan but a civilized society and a democratic country, and what Jauramajra did is condemnable and unacceptable”, Warring said.

Sunil Jakhar, BJP leader, tweeted: “The treatment meted out to Dr Raj Bahadur is shameful and unacceptable. Funds will fix the health infrastructure, not uncouth behaviour. The CM should ask the minister to apologise to the medical fraternity.”

Jouramajra could not be contacted in spite of repeated attempts.

His personal assistant, Gurdev Singh Tiwana, said he was unaware of the incident at the Faridkot medical college. He assured this correspondent that he would arrange a phone call with Jouramajra, but he did not respond back till the time of filing the news report.

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