Gas, Power, and Teesta in the Health Minister’s Speech: Where Is the Health Sector?
With the health sector in crisis, the minister spoke at length on political issues and little on his own ministry, critics say
What do people expect to hear from a health minister? How the dismal state of hospitals will be turned around, when the shortage of doctors and nurses will end, how the suffering of patients at public hospitals will be eased, and how the supply of medicines will be ensured. These are the questions that demand answers.
Yet, listening to the recent remarks of Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar Mohammad Sakhawat Hossain Bakul, one might think he is running the ministries of energy, power, agriculture, water resources and foreign affairs alongside the health ministry.
Speaking as chief guest at a BNP views-exchange meeting at the Manikganj District Shilpakala Academy on Sunday (27 September), the minister devoted much of his lengthy address to gas in the Bay of Bengal, gas extraction by India and Myanmar, Adani’s electricity, fertiliser, quick rental power plants, Indian influence, Farakka and Teesta. Political opponents also featured in his remarks.
The minister said Myanmar on one side, and India on the other side of the Bay of Bengal are extracting gas. He claimed that Bangladesh, too, holds vast gas reserves beneath the sea. According to him, BNP leader Tarique Rahman has taken the initiative to extract gas from the Bay of Bengal after holding discussions with the international community.
He then turned to Adani, the power shortfall, quick rental plants and fertiliser. Criticising the activities of past governments, he also spoke of political opponents, Indian ‘cohorts’ and ‘fascists’. Towards the end, the discussion moved on to the Teesta barrage and Chinese cooperation.
In other words, although he is the health minister, health was not at the centre of his speech. Naturally, the question arises: where is his statement on his own ministry?
According to critics, the country’s health sector is not in a condition where the need for accountability has ended. Pressure of patients at public hospitals, a shortage of beds, a deficit of doctors and nurses, medicine supply, rising treatment costs, emergency healthcare, public health and hospital management — in every one of these areas, questions remain over the government’s decisions and their implementation.
Critics allege that while the minister is very vocal on political matters at meetings and rallies, the core problems of the health ministry are comparatively slipping out of view. They ask: which crises has the minister identified since taking charge, which problems has he resolved, and what are his specific targets for the health sector over the next year? Where is the clear public explanation?
They put the question even more directly: is the duty of the health ministry to account for the failures of past governments from political platforms, or to solve the problems of the present health system?
Criticising the decisions of past governments can be part of political speech. Controversy over the Adani power deal, quick rental plants, gas exploration or water management is also not unusual. But what people expect from a minister of the current government is not merely a list of past failures; it is an account of how present problems are being solved.
This accountability is all the more pressing for the health ministry. A political statement on the power shortage may draw a political reaction, but when a patient fails to receive treatment at a hospital, the suffering is direct and immediate.
For a patient, how many trillion cubic feet of gas lie beneath the Bay of Bengal may matter, but what matters more is whether there is a hospital bed. For a relative, the future of the Teesta barrage may be important, but in an emergency the more immediate question is whether an ICU bed can be found. For a poor family, the bigger question than how many megawatts Adani supplies is how much they must spend on treatment.
The minister’s recent remarks did include a plan to bring hospitals under solar power, which relates to health infrastructure. But critics ask whether, even with solar-powered hospitals, there will be enough doctors, whether medicines will be available, whether patients will receive the treatment they need, and how the quality of care will be ensured.
In the critics’ view, the problem is not that the minister speaks, but the priorities in what he says and how much he says about which responsibility. A minister is expected to make political speeches at political meetings. But when he also heads a vital service ministry, the responsibilities of that ministry inevitably come to the fore in each of his major public statements.
Whether there is gas, how much electricity India supplies, how much Adani has cut back, or who will build Teesta — political debate on these can certainly continue. But when the health system bears directly on people’s lives and money every day, the biggest question remains: why does the health minister’s microphone carry so little about the health ministry?
In the end, people do not measure a minister’s success by the length of his speeches. They measure it by their real experience: what service they received at the hospital, how long they had to wait, whether they got the treatment they needed, and how much responsibility the state took for their care.
