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Dr Harshinder
Kaur emerges winner as govt eats humble pie
WSN Bureau
 PATIALA:
This was one move for which the Indian government paid dearly, as
did the Punjab’s Akali-BJP regime. Dr Harshinder Kaur, who was at
the centre of the government’s vengeful attack for contradicting at
an international forum an Indian official who had claimed 100 per
cent literacy for girls in Punjab, had to be reinstated within days
of her ouster from Patiala’s hospital.
Dr Harshinder
Kaur will now continue on her post at
Rajindra
Hospital
in Patiala. She was shunted out under the pretense that she had made
anti-India remarks at a recent United Nations conference when all
she had done was simply underline what the entire civil society has
been shouting hoarse about: that international aid is best spent
through working with NGOs than merely through governments.
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She resisted slur at Sikhs
The Indian
official at the international conference was also guilty of bad
mouthing the Sikhs and had tried to suggest that since Punjab
had a highly skewed sex ratio, and majority of Sikhs lived in
Punjab, therefore Sikhs were somehow killers of the girl child.
Dr Kaur took on the official and protested at the remarks
against the Sikhs.
She asked
the official whether or not there were other states and
communities which have a lower gender ratio than Punjab in
general and Sikhs in particular. Quoting statistics of the
Government of India and Punjab government, she said literacy
rate in Punjab is 64 per cent and efforts be made to educate the
girl child in the state.
The IFS
officer had dubbed the remarks “anti-national” and “anti-Punjab”
and lodged a complaint with the MEA. Instead of the ruling Akali
Dal demanding action against the official for heaping insults on
the Sikh community, action was taken against Dr Kaur. |
Dr Kaur had also
contradicted the official representing the Indian government by
saying that it was not true that Punjab had 100 per cent literacy
among women or girl children and much needed to be done. The Indian
official had threatened Dr Kaur and as soon as she reached
India,
the consequences followed.
Punjab
government’s secretary Health Satish Chandra summoned Dr Harshinder
Kaur and asked her to submit an explanation along with a copy of her
speech at the June 8 United Nations conference. There was such hue
and cry that the government was forced to retract its steps.
Dr Kaur’s
reputation also came in the government’s vengeful ways. She is known
for speaking up against female foeticide, misuse of government
funds, cause of Punjabi language and betterment of the female
child.
Daughter of
legendary scholar, late Prof Pritam Singh, and sister of Bathinda
Central University Vice-Chancellor Dr Jairup Singh, Dr Kaur had made
it clear that her speech contained nothing incriminating and the
action divesting her of her charge as medical officer in the
pediatric department of Rajindra Hospital in Patiala was clearly
wrong.
On Monday, she
joined back as a winner.
The state
government will write to the Ministry of External Affairs, informing
it of the same.
12
August 2009
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