New Delhi: Even as resident doctors at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Patna called off their indefinite strike Tuesday, the issue of their confrontation with Chetan Anand, Janata Dal (United) MLA from Bihar’s Sheohar, has reached Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda’s office. The confrontation, followed by a resident doctors’ strike and Anand’s refusal to apologise has put Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in a fix just before the elections.
Doctors at AIIMS Patna were on strike for five days, alleging that Anand—the son of former MP Anand Mohan—and his wife Ayushi Singh physically assaulted and threatened doctors with a firearm during a late-night visit to the hospital to check on a patient.
Doctors say the dispute erupted when AIIMS guards objected to the entry of the MLA’s bodyguards, leading to a clash between resident doctors and Anand’s entourage. An FIR has been filed against Anand and his supporters by the AIIMS administration on behalf of the resident doctors’ association.
Anand has denied the allegations, alleging that AIIMS staff and doctors misbehaved with his wife. Anand and his wife have also filed an FIR, alleging that an AIIMS staffer and doctors misbehaved with the couple when he and his wife went to one of his supporters admitted at AIIMS.
Protesting resident doctors have been demanding the withdrawal of them FIR against them and an apology from Chetan Anand, much like the Goa health minister’s public apology after a spat with doctors at a state-run hospital in June. “The MLA, his wife and his armed guards forcibly entered the hospital area, physically assaulted security staff, threatened resident doctors with death and brandished a firearm within hospital premises. A hospital guard was brutally injured, and resident doctors were subjected to threats and abuse inside their own workplace,” the Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) said in a complaint.
In his complaint, Anand said, “I was not allowed to enter the hospital with my security guard. This prompted my wife to intervene.”
Adding, “At that moment, other staff members came and started misbehaving with my wife. They literally thrashed her. I had to intervene. My wife sustained injuries to her wrist and back. I was also held hostage by the staffers for some time. Finally, we went to the local police station and lodged a complaint.”
Anand’s wife said in her complaint that resident doctors “started a hungama (ruckus) and abused her and snatched the watch from her hand” when her husband started to click a picture and call the health minister.
With both the MLA and resident doctors taking the issue to Nadda’s table, the standoff has put Nitish Kumar at a political crossroads.
JD(U) leaders ThePrint spoke to say Nitish can’t afford to antagonise party leader Anand Mohan, who has considerable influence in the Rajput community.
In April 2023, the state government led by Nitish notified an amendment to the Bihar Prison Manual that related to the deletion of the clause which specified that those killing government officials were not entitled to release for “good behaviour”. Anand Mohan had been serving life imprisonment for the murder of a public servant in 1994.
On Monday, Nitish met Anand Mohan in a bid to resolve the standoff. “While tensions between Rajputs and Kushwahas led to the defeat of Rajput or Kushwaha NDA candidates in three Lok Sabha seats—Arrah, Aurangabad and Karakat—Lovely Anand won in Sheohar due to the Anand Mohan factor. Bihar has 3.45 percent Rajputs and in the last Assembly, 28 MLAs from Rajput community won, showing the power of the community,” said a JD(U) leader.
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‘Can’t treat patients with gun to our heads’
Back at AIIMS, representatives of the RDA met the director, demanding action against the MLA and better security for medical staff. The AIIMS director promised to install 500 CCTVs to prevent such incidents in the future and has constituted a fact-finding team.
Dr Kailash, a representative of the RDA at AIIMS Patna, told ThePrint that services in the OPD and Operation Theatres (OT) were suspended since 1 August as part of the protest.
“For the last five days, we’ve been demanding that the FIR against doctors be scrapped and that the MLA apologise, just like the Goa minister apologised in a similar case,” he said. “We are demanding transparency in the investigation. We can’t treat patients with a gun to our heads. We are doctors, not criminals.”
He added that while the AIIMS director recently assured them that 500 CCTV cameras would be installed to improve hospital security, similar promises were made after previous incidents but never fulfilled.
“How can we trust the administration?” he said. “No tenders were floated then. We’ve now written to both the chief minister and health minister J.P. Nadda, asking them to intervene.”
Dr Saurabh Varshney, director of AIIMS Patna, told ThePrint the administration has constituted an enquiry and is taking steps to resolve the issue. He added that their primary demand is the removal of one student’s name from the police complaint.
On his part, Chetan Anand took to social media to post a picture of protesting doctors with the caption: “Do you know?? The secret of these smiles is ‘Colgate’ !! And free holiday in the name of a strike! AIIMS should be like Delhi AIIMS. Otherwise, Bihar’s other hospitals are better.”
Anand told the media that he was not at fault and that AIIMS doctors misbehaved with his wife. “She suffered injuries. There is no question of an apology. The AIIMS administration is at fault and doctors can lose their registration for such an act,” he said.
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Clout of Anand Mohan and family
The political relevance of Anand Mohan, hailed by supporters as a Robin Hood-like figure in parts of Bihar, can be gauged from how the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government changed the jail manual to ensure his release. The government amended the Bihar Prison Manual, 2012, on 10 April, 2023, removing a clause that said those convicted for murder of a public servant on duty could not be given remission of their jail term.
Mohan was convicted for his alleged role in the 1994 murder of the then Gopalganj collector G. Krishnaiah during the funeral procession of Muzaffarpur gangster Chotan Shukla.
A local court had sentenced Mohan to death in October 2007, but the Patna High Court commuted it to life imprisonment in December 2008, after an appeal.
The family’s political clout is such that when Chetan Anand’s sister got married, many senior political leaders from Nitish Kumar to Tejashwi Yadav and the late Sushil Kumar Modi attended the wedding.
When Chetan Anand got married, apart from Nitish and Tejashwi, senior BJP leaders Giriraj Singh and Radha Mohan Singh also attended the function.
When Anand Mohan was released from prison, the BJP attacked Nitish’s decision, with BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya criticising the move on social media. But knowing Anand Mohan’s clout, BJP leaders in Bihar, from Giriraj Singh to Radha Mohan Singh, defended him.
The JD(U) was not part of the BJP-led NDA at the time.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the JD(U) fielded Anand Mohan’s wife, Lovely Anand, in Sheohar. She won the seat, underlining the significance of Rajput loyalties and the enduring appeal of Anand Mohan in the community.
Anand Mohan began his political career during the JP movement, where he led the youth organisation Samajwadi Kranti Sena. He entered the Assembly on a Janata Dal ticket in 1990 and later won the 1996 and 1998 Lok Sabha elections, on Samata Party and All India Rashtriya Janata Party tickets, from Sheohar.
The high point of his political innings was when his wife, Lovely Anand, defeated Kishori Sinha, the wife of the influential Rajput leader and former chief minister, Satyendra Narayan Sinha.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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