The Hindu Business Line : <I>L'affaire AIIMS </I>

The political head and the top bureaucrat/technocrat of a Ministry being at loggerheads with each other is invariably an unedifying spectacle. But the possibility of it is inherent in a situation in which the personalities are strong-willed and have clear-cut convictions. Often, in private discussions, say, in the Minister's room, airing of honest differences of opinions may even turn stormy. But so long as the participants keep in the forefront the paramount goal of public good, such exchanges are healthy and may even enhance the respect each has for the other. At least, that is the essence of a refined and sophisticated relationship between a Minister and his officers.

It is when differences stem from inflated egos, malice or intolerance, and spill over into the public domain as ugly clashes, in the full glare of the media, that they begin inflicting severe institutional damage in more ways than one. First, they rob the dramatis personae of their effectiveness and authority in the respective offices they hold. Second, they polarise the officers and staff who play one camp against the other by resorting to back-biting and allegation-mongering.

Third, the suspicion and distrust engendered fouls up human relations for months, and even years, together. The net effect of the fallout in all these directions is to drag the reputation and credibility of the organisation(s) concerned in the mud.

In l'affaire AIIMS, the Director seems to have been the first to go public with a catalogue of complaints against the Minister, who felt it necessary to react. However, the Prime Minister having applied the healing touch, both the Minister and the Director, who are enlightened professionals in their own way, should get back to working in a spirit of harmony and mutual reinforcement for maintaining AIIMS as a world class institution. AIIMS has done the country proud so far, and should be enabled to do so in the future also.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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