Gen V K Singh of Medical Profession?

General V K Singh of the medical profession?

The other day I was discussing Gen V K Singh episode in a plush Café coffee day corner of a a plush Corporate hospital in New Delhi and the discussion veered on whether Gen V K Singh was right or wrong in bringing this issue up  and If that only brought to fore his incapability and incompetency to handle the issue. If he as the chief of army staff could do nothing about it, then what can be expected of the rest of the country?

The group consisted of orthopedic surgeons at different stages of their career: from DNB trainees, Senior registrar, associate & junior consultant to the chief of the department of orthopedics. The discussion went on animatedly until this chief of the department suddenly declared or rather confessed that he is the equivalent of Gen V K Singh for orthopedics and thus can understand General’s perspective very well.

For a moment everyone felt silent, not fully grasping the import of his words.  Here was a guy 70 year plus ex Head of department of the one of the most prestigious medical college of the country and now heading the department of the most famous corporate setup in the capital of the country confessing to what many in the group considered incapability and to some extent cowardice. He went on, “I have been Gen V K Singh on the numerous occasions in past and perhaps even worse”.

In times where sporting ‘I am ANNA’ was the latest fashion statement, calling himself Gen V K Singh stumped most. He went on to clarify ‘ I was the head of department and there were numerous occasion when my friends and closest colleagues tried to lure me into the things that most would be call a bribe and I could do nothing but politely refuse. I could not dare, dare would be rather harsh, it was just that I could not bring myself to act on the issue. I do not know if it was cowardice or just plain incapability. Here I was the most powerful man in the department and on occasions acting Dean of the college, but at the same time completely incapable of doing something about issues that I knew were wrong and responsible for the rot’

‘Arguments and ingenuity of bribing continued to flummox me.  It ranged from arguments ranging from we are not doing anything wrong, we continue to practice the way we work, write the same drugs, use the same implants and if in turn someone wants to reward us for the same thing, there is nothing wrong with it. And the lure was in every sphere from drugs to implants, from MRI to general purchases and surprisingly the offer would always come from someone who was close to me and I usually thought as my close confidante, someone whom I trusted and someone who knew my style and ethics.’ Whether I was right or wrong in not reporting it, I could never come to self-conclusion until this day when I could call my behavior neither right nor wrong but ‘Gen V K Singh’ behavior. Unlike the time of Mahabharata when Arjuna had Lord Krishna to direct him in such situations, I and Gen V K Singh had no one. Despite knowing that by not taking an action on the matter we were also subjugating justice, we chose the relatively easy way out at the time, bringing it up passively in front of superior knowing fully aware that we have at least fulfilled part of our responsibility yet not being courageous enough to use of our intelligence and position to ensure that corrupt suffer.’

These words from Horse’s mouth made all of us view the matter in an entirely different light. I realized that it is unfortunate that today in India majority of us are either corrupt or are Gen V K Singh and that only a minority of us are Anna and that reflects in things as they stand today. For the country to change not only should corrupt convert and change, but also Gen V K Singh and likes have to change as well so that we ensure that change can be heralded if not by change of heart, by the force of Law.