'Humiliated', medical university Vice Chancellor quits

Tribune News Service

Vishav Bharti

Chandigarh, July 30

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann apologised to Dr Raj Bahadur on Saturday, hours after the veteran surgeon resigned as the Vice Chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, over the “humiliation” he faced at the hands of Health Minister Chetan Singh Jauramajra a day ago.

‘Doctors deserve respect’ — Dr Raj Bahadur

The CM’s apology notwithstanding, the Aam Aadmi Party backed the minister saying Opposition leaders were “shedding crocodile tears” and had done little for the cause of commoners “suffering in government hospitals”.

Terming the incident “unfortunate”, AAP chief spokesperson Malvinder Kang said “equally unfortunate” was the way Opposition leaders were politicising the matter when it was quite evident that the Health Minister was “distressed to find the dilapidated condition of beds and lack of cleanliness at a hospital where mostly poor people came for treatment”.

Opposition leaders targeted Jauramajra for “humiliating” Dr Bahadur. Mann rang up and offered an apology after Dr Bahadur sent his resignation to the CM, said sources. The CM is learnt to have acknowledged the VC’s contribution to medical science and told him that the minister had been warned against such behaviour. Sources said Mann tried to impress upon Dr Bahadur to reconsider his decision of quitting. The doctor, however, said it was difficult to carry on after the way he was humiliated, said sources.

Dr Bahadur is one of the most eminent spine surgeons of the country. In his about 45-year-long career, he has been the head of the Orthopaedics Department at the PGI, Chandigarh; Director-Principal at Government Medical College, Sector 32 (Chandigarh), and has taught at Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi.

Visibly shaken after the incident, Dr Bahadur stuck to his duty today and examined patients at the Regional Spinal Injury Centre, Mohali, a routine he has been following every Saturday for years. “Before being an administrator, I am a doctor and doctors deserve respect,” he said.

Later, Dr Bahadur could be seen struggling to hold back his tears when Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring called on him and offered his support at the Regional Spinal Injury Centre. During his visit to Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot, on Friday, Jauramajra had asked Dr Bahadur to lie down on a shabby bed.

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