Congress, BJP, SP paving the way for Ketan Desai's re-entry into MCI:AAP

NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party has alleged that the Congress, BJP and Samajwadi Party have colluded to facilitate the return of the tainted former president of Medical Council of India, Ketan Desai, back into the body which oversees medical education in the country. AAP member Prashant Bhushan on Friday accused health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress , BJP’s prime ministerial hopeful Narendra Modi and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav of providing patronage to Desai.

“These political parties have displayed their complete contempt for medical education in India and are thus jeopardising the entire healthcare system in India,” Bhushan said at a press conference . was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in 2010 for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 2 crore from the management of a private medical college in Patiala. He had faced corruption charges earlier in 2001 as well, when the Delhi High Court had removed him from his office as the president of MCI on charges of corruption and accepting bribe. After Desai’s arrest , the MCI was dissolved.

However , the Congress-led coalition government restored it and elected close associates of Desai to the council. According to AAP, the Gujarat University, at the behest of the Modi-led state government in 2013 nominated Desai as a member of the MCI despite two cases pending against him. The party has also taken up the issue of the abrupt transfer of Keshav Desiraju, joint secretary in the Union health ministry , from the post of union health secretary and said this was done in violation of the Supreme Court’s order to ensure a two-year tenure to all senior officers in the interests of good governance.

Desiraju was transferred at the behest of the health minister Azad, the party has claimed. The party has also alleged that GK General Hospital, a multi-speciality hospital at the site of earthquake in Bhuj which uses funds from the Prime Minister’s relief fund, has been transferred to Gujarat Adani Institute of Medical Sciences under public-private partnership.