Baba Farid University VC resigns after being forced to lie on dirty mattress; sparks row

NEW DELHI: Baba Farid University of Health Sciences Vice-Chancellor Dr Raj Bahadur has resigned on Friday after being allegedly forced to lie on a damaged mattress during an inspection by the Punjab Health Minister Chetan Singh Jouramajra. VC Bahadur has been learnt to have requested the Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to relieve him from services. The incident sparked a row with several medical and doctors associations condemning the act by Aam Aadmi Party’s minister and demanding Jouramajra’s resignation.

The incident happened Friday, when Jouramajra was on an inspection to Faridkot's Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, which comes under the BFUHS. A video clip of the incident circulating on the social media, showed Jouramajra place a hand on the veteran surgeon's shoulder as he pointed towards the "damaged and dirty condition" of the mattress inside the hospital's skin department. The minister is then seen to be allegedly forcing Dr Bahadur to lie down on the same mattress. Bahadur in the video is seen explaining to the minister that he was not responsible for the facilities, to which the AAP leader retorted “everything is in your hands.”

Bahadur, a specialist in spinal surgery and joint replacement, is a former director-principal of Government Medical College and Hospital in Chandigarh and has also been the head of the orthopaedic department at PGIMER, Chandigarh.

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“Public humiliation of So much famed Doctor and VC of Baba Farid University Dr.Raj Bahadur is not acceptable at any cost! We Demand strict action against Health Minister Chetan Singh for misbehaving with the seniormost Govt Doctor!,” the Federation of All India Medical Association tweeted.

Public humiliation of So much famed Doctor and VC of Baba Farid University Dr.Raj Bahadur is not acceptable at any cost!
We Demand strict action against Health Minister Chetan Singh for misbehaving with Seniormost Govt Doctor!@BhagwantMann @AAPPunjab @Nainamishr94 @TaruniGandhi pic.twitter.com/lx05MB4YWT

— FAIMA Doctors Association (@FAIMA_INDIA_) July 29, 2022

The Federation of Resident Doctors Association demanded urgent intervention and appropriate action. “Such behavior for a person who has taken Baba Farid Medical University to its highest level is in no sense acceptable to the fraternity,” it said in a letter addressed to the CM.

FORDA strongly condemns derogatory behaviour met to the highest respectable doctor of Medical services of Punjab . We demand urgent intervention by the hon'ble CM of Punjab . @BhagwantMann @CMOPb @PunjabGovtIndia @AamAadmiParty @ArvindKejriwal @PTI_News @ANI @ndtv @aajtak pic.twitter.com/AZB9brPxdX

— FORDA INDIA (@FordaIndia) July 30, 2022

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Former education minister of Punjab, Pargat Singh, called the incident “cheap theatrics” of AAP govt. “Cheap theatrics of Aam Aadmi Party never ceases. Today the Vice Chancellor of Baba Farid Medical University,Raj Bahadur Singh was publicly humiliated by the Health minister Chetan Singh Jouramajra (+2 Pass).This type of mob behaviour will only demoralise our medical staff,” he tweeted.