One unidentified person threw ink on Union Health Minister JP Nadda in the AIIMS Bhopal campus, where he visited on Saturday. Since, the students in the campus were demonstrating against poor facilities at the medical institute and had gheraoed him while returning. It was believed that a student might be behind this act.
The students have been demanding better faculty and facilities at AIIMS Bhopal. Nearly 50 medical students, who are not happy with the facilities at the campus, wanted to meet the Health Minister but were not allowed to by the administration. The students claim the campus had not been developed properly in the last four years.
When Nadda was walking towards his car to leave the campus, the protesting students tried to talk to him and one of them then threw ink on the minister's white kurta. The students started shouting slogans after the attack. The marker ink was thrown when the minister was in his car, on his way out of the AIIMS campus, at around 1:30 pm. The motorcade, however, zipped out of the institute. A third-year student said that half the department was not functional at the institute even after 13 years. “When we’re protesting for the rightful demand, our voice is being quelled,” the student said.
Explaining the reason behind throwing ink at the union minister, a medical student said that Nadda did not stop to listen to their grievances. “We wanted the minister to hear us out, but he did not stop. We wanted to stop him,” said the student.
The more than 50 medical students had gathered in protest, and the police had to use mild force to disperse them as they tried to block the health minister’s car. Two third-year MBBS students, identified as Ijha Pandey and Anjali Krishna, fell down and sustained minor injuries in the scuffle.
Nadda, who is the fourth Union health minister to visit the institute in the last 13 years, inaugurated five facilities at the hospital, including two new wards, pharmacy, high-dependency unit, blood bank storage and a maternity ward. He also unveiled CT Scan and MRI services at the hospital.
The minister was accompanied by Bhopal MP Alok Sanjar, minister Rustam Singh and senior doctors of the institute.