Hospitals and the Political Farce in Andhra Pradesh
Out here in Andhra Pradesh, we are living through life changing times. From the 9th of December 2009, when the central government announced its decision to initiate the process for the formation of Telangana state, neither the politicians nor the media have had a breather.
While the Telangana protests subsided instantly, several of the political parties that have openly promised Telangana during the recent Lok Sabha elections have burnt their boats and are hitching their political fortunes to the integration bandwagon. The political parties like Telugu Desam and Prajarayam do not see their long-term future wholly in Telangana as their social base is in Andhra but their economic interests are in Telangana. The social base is essential for their electoral fortunes which they cannot afford to alienate. Some of the Congress bigwigs are not immune to this either. This political dilemma and the desperation to secure their investments in Telangana is manifesting in a political farce that has not been witnessed in the state in a long time.
The latest is the antics of the Congress MP from Vijayawada, Lagadapati Rajagopal (LR), whose family enterprise Lanco runs power projects, infrastructure projects and owns hundreds of acres of land around Hyderabad. He has been vociferous in his opposition to the demand for separate state for Telangana and had run-ins with the activists before the latest series of incidents. After the central Home Minister’s announcement of statehood for Telangana, Lagadapati threatened to go on hunger strike a la K Chadrasekhar Rao (KCR). LR sat on fast, was put in a hospital in Vijayawada, but insisted on being treated at NIMS in Hyderabad, the same hospital where KCR was kept under arrest while on fast. When the state refused, anticipating trouble, he walked out of the Vijayawada hospital in full view of the 200-odd policemen and disappeared for several hours in a SUV to surface at NIMS in an auto rickshaw. He sprinted into the hospital with the police and TV cameras chasing him and got into a bed in the ICU!
Through out this ridiculous drama, the television channels were looping the footage of the man running into the hospital and lying in the ICU, without really asking the questions that arise in the minds of the public – there was utter chaos at the Vijayawada hospital, then at NIMS with activists and politicians descending on the place unmindful of the ordinary patients who are there for treatment. What happens to the other patients and emergency services when such gross misuse of a public utility is not only tolerated but found entertaining both by politicians and the media? Every celebrity scamster, politician, accused, today checks in to a hospital to avoid arrest. In the process, the medical profession appears to be deeply complicit in entertaining this gross abuse. What is the integrity of a doctor who shields an accused and gives false medical reports? Is the job of the media over, by just reporting what the doctors say …. Not just reporting but repeatedly scrolling alarmist reports about the condition of some politician or the other who is leveraging this as a strategy? Is this not also a medical ethics issue?
For instance, NIMS sheltered actor Balakrishna when he shot and injured two people in his house. His fans arrived from all over the state, daring the state to take any action. The doctors went on air giving health updates to the media, all the time sheltering the actor. NIMS had several celebrity patients like Ramalinga Raju of Satyam and KCR himself. There are several politicians on fast unto death in the Andhra region today, whose health the doctors are characterising as deteriorating to the media. In this process, is the medical profession being deeply politicised to give politically correct medical assessments? The other fall out is on the ordinary patient who has difficulty getting fair services at normal times, and can hope for very little in such chaotic times.
The media instead of questioning the misuse of hospitals as political battlegrounds descend on the hospitals to get exclusive footage for their channels. The extreme inconvenience caused by the presence of both the media and the politicians remains unaddressed. How essential is it to chase Lagadapati into the ICU? One did not see a single channel question why a man who can sprint into the hospital needs intensive care. Intensive care signifies life and death for anxious families. How can someone get into a hospital bypassing the security (which was nowhere to be seen - in a Hyderabad which saw serial bombings by terrorists), without being examined by a doctor and being formally admitted to ICU? Can an ordinary person sprint into the ICU of a hospital without the intervention of the medical experts? Under whose care was he admitted? What tests were recommended? The channels kept looping the footage and the anchors went on to discuss the antics of the politician with an indulgent smile, while the impact of this on people who are at the hospital for genuine reasons is not even an issue. The presence of the media, instead of making the hospital administration watch its step, seems to encourage it to host ‘celebrities’.
The net result of this rash of fasts by sundry politicians across the state, and the uncritical media reports about them, appears to have completely trivialised the issue of statehood to Telangana. The issue has been on a slow burn for over 50 years with several genuine problems that need addressing. It is a historic occasion that needs a critical and rational debate about how best to take it forward. The only channel that appears to have caught the mood of the moment is HMTV which brought together activists and intellectuals from all walks of life for an extensive debate on the issue. TV9 too has been airing longish interviews/call-in programmes with politicians like KCR, Undavalli Arun Kumar and Jayaprakash Narayan. The really entertaining programme continues to be the political spoof run by TV9 called ‘Evari gola varidi”
Looking at the political scenario in Andhra Pradesh, one wonders what would happen if there is no coverage for some of the political activities that are cropping up across the state. One has repeatedly seen a handful of people burning effigies and screaming into the cameras on tight shots and creating a false picture of the public mood. Five minutes after the event, there is no one at the scene of action. This convenience of television coverage that magnifies small events has made long-term, sustained building up of grass roots opinion unnecessary. Today it is ‘hit and run’ activism that suffices and gets the maximum mileage and instant public and policy responses. The new politician seems to understand this game too well. Now it is for the media to resist this, if it wishes to serve public interest.
