Recently a 22 year old young man from Vasco Malcolm Dias died on account of no proper medical treatment at the Chicalim Government Hospital. This is not an isolated case of medical negligence. Over the years so many have been similar victims at the various government hospitals across Goa where the patients are carelessly left to die.
Against this backdrop it is so very outrageous that the State exchequer is shelling out crores of rupees on the medical treatment of the very cash rich Ministers and MLAs at private super specialty hospitals of their choice around India and overseas. Why should the politicians be entitled to pick and choose the care they demand more than the common man? This absurd VIP culture needs to be punctured and grounded once and for all. This is infact a very fit case for our High Court to take Suo-motu cognizance and step in to ensure that public funds are not blatantly squandered on the health of politicians in state of art hospitals while the citizens are allowed to mercilessly expire in pitifully run very ill equipped government hospitals. May be the conditions of these State hospitals will improve if the politicians in Power are treated there and made to feel the pain in government hospitals. Afterall what is good for the goose must be good for the gander. Politicians must set an example and be treated on the same basis as the very citizens who elect them and pay for their treatment.
Former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who always claimed to be a very modest Aam Aadmi and passed away in March this year has left behind a medical expenses bill of a whopping 5.72 crore for our cash strapped State to grapple with. The State has been also lumbered with a huge bill of Rs 1.05 crore on the medical treatment of former Power Minister Pandurang Madkaikar who on 5th June last year suffered a brain stroke after an overdose of potency enhancing pills while on that sex binge in a Mumbai hotel. Why should the State have to bear the brunt of the very immoral sexual extravaganza and so shameful act that Pandurang Madkaikar engaged in? This despite him owning a palatial mansion and other properties and languishing in them without being of any use to the taxpayer during the illness.
The private lives of public figures are wide open to public scrutiny. What they do in their private life matters and does impact their public responsibilities. Can they be ethical in public if they are dishonorable in private? Their private life reveals more about morals than their sound bites. We should leave no room for abuse by such beasts elected and masquerading as leaders of their flock when in reality they are wolves in sheep’s clothing.
It cannot be justified that these politicians and there have been a few of them over recent years, who despite being gravely or terminally ill and incapable of serving the people have continued to desperately cling on to power rather than retiring on medical grounds. This gross abuse of power is an unnecessary burden on the taxpayer who is incapable of receiving any decent treatment and would save the Exchequer crores of rupees that could be better spent on updating the pathetic health facilities within Goa.
The French Nobel Prize winning Author and Philosopher Albert Camus had rightly said “A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world”
