Health Minister Ramadoss must quit: BJP

Former Union health minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government Sushma Swaraj has demanded that Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss's resignation following the apex court's obvervations against the minister and the manner in which he used Parliament to get rid of Dr P Venugopal as director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

"This is not just a defeat for Dr Ramadoss, but also for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government. We demand that Ramadoss resign as health minister, but in case he does not do that then Dr Singh should drop him from the Cabinet," Swaraj told journalists at a hurriedly organized press conference in New Delhi.

Justice Tarun Chatterjee and Justice H S Bedi upheld the appeal of Dr Venugopal that the new law seeking his removal was malafidely brought in by the present government.

Striking down the bill by the court, according to Swaraj amounts to reinstating as the director of AIIMS.

"The court has struck down only this proviso, while bringing down the age of the director to 65 has not been touched," she said.

Swaraj charged that Ramadoss would have spent his time as the Union health minister in a better manner had he done something positive to take forward the scheme announced by her to have six more AIIMS in different parts of the country.

Instead Ramadoss picked on Dr Venugopal and made it his prestige issue to see his exit from country's leading medical institute.