Jaya’s death: Health Minister dismisses OPS’ allegations

Asks why Panneerselvam did not raise doubts about treatment given when he was in power

O. Panneerselvam

Rejecting the doubts raised by former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and his supporters over the death of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, State Health Minister C. Vijaya Baskar on Sunday said updates on her health were given every morning and questioned why Mr. Panneerselvam didn’t make these allegations when he was the Chief Minister.

In a statement on Sunday evening, Mr. Vijaya Baskar questioned the “contrasting attitudes” of Mr. Panneerselvam while he was in and out of power. He alleged that Mr. Panneerselvam had received and accompanied all VIPs, including Union Ministers Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu, during their visit to Apollo Hospitals when its medical team, led by its chief Dr. Pratap Reddy, explained the treatment given to Jayalalithaa.

At that time, Mr. Panneerselvam did not raise even a single double or any reservations about the treatment given to her. “But today he is managing his political survival by playing on the demise of Hon’ble

Amma (Jayalalithaa). This is what that hurts me a great deal,” the Minister said.

“This clearly raises a lot of doubts in the popular mind about the veracity of his statements. It is not that [Mr.] Panneerselvam is raising questions about Hon’ble

Amma ’s (Jayalalithaa) health and treatment, but it is because he is mentally sick being out of power. Hence, he is being derogatory to all those are deeply concerned about Hon’ble Amma ’s health condition,” he alleged.

The Minister recalled an interview of Mr. Panneerselvam to a television channel in which he reportedly stated that he had no doubt or suspicion about the medical treatment that Jayalalithaa received at Apollo Hospitals.

Mr. Panneerselvam was “well aware” that apart from doctors from Apollo Hospitals, experts from AIIMS in Delhi, Christian Medical College in Vellore, Dr. Stuart Russell of John Hopkins Hospital New York, USA (through video conference), Dr. Ravi Mehta from Bengaluru Apollo, Dr. Shamin Sharma, a team led by Narendra Reddy from Hyderabad, a team led by Dwivedi from Tata Memorial Hospital from Mumbai, were all consulted and they also visited Jayalalithaa in hospital. The Tamil Nadu government too had, by issuing a GO on September 30 last year, appointed a team of five specialist doctors to monitor the medical treatment given to Jayalalithaa, he pointed out.

‘First culprit’

“It is obvious that Mr. Panneerselvam stands as the first culprit in the suspicions that he is now raising about the medical treatment that Hon’ble Amma was being given. As long as [Mr.] Panneerselvam was in power he had no doubts about the treatment given to Hon’ble Amma, but soon after the deprivation of power, he was disoriented and started raising doubts about the treatment,” the Minister charged.