Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on Saturday announced the rustication of five students from the Goa Medical College who were residing at the hostel after a packet of marijuana was found in the common toilet within the hostel campus. The packet of marijuana, weighing all of eight grams, which is really a negligible amount, was found unattended in the toilet. However, the trigger-happy Rane was quick to tweet about the incident and announced that the students would be rusticated.
The entire chain of events is deeply disturbing and problematic to say the least. Rane, who isn’t really known to be level-headed, especially in tough situations has assumed upon himself the role of judge, jury and executioner and in what can, at best be described as a case of ‘shoot first and ask questions later’ went on social media to announce the decision.
There is nothing on record to state who is responsible for the alleged illegal substance being found in the common toilet. But here the students have already been pronounced guilty by the Health Minister, in his misguided zeal to project himself as a man of action. Once the Health Minister tweets, there is little scope for the Dean or any statutory or college authorities to go against the public remarks and are left with no option but to do as the minister says lest they be accused of failing to toe the official line.
What’s even worse is that the students, who may have indulged in what can only be described as a transgression and indiscretion not uncommon in youth and adolescents, have been treated like criminals when repeated studies have shown that the right way to handle the situation is to treat the transgressors as victims rather than as criminals. One cannot equate a drug user as a drug peddler or worse as a member of a cartel. But that’s just what seems to have happened in this case.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that the Health Minister has behaved irresponsibly with his public posturing. Back in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic, he very prematurely went and announced that Goa had received its first case of Covid-19 claiming that one of the samples had returned a positive test. It turned out that it was a false alarm, which Rane at the time sought to conveniently blame on what he said was a ‘hoax’ call received by one of the senior doctors involved in Covid-19 management. Nothing emerged of the so-called inquiry into the hoax call that was allegedly made lending credence to the belief that it was actually Rane himself, who couldn’t restrain himself in making a public announcement before really double checking and tackling the issue with a level head.
Repeated, irresponsible public statements by the minister who now holds the portfolio of not only Health but also Forests, TCP and Urban Development, and is both officially as well as in practice seen as the second in command, does not bode well for the government. Senior ministers need to understand the sensitivity of issues and the aftermath that, in this case, could scar the budding students for the rest of their lives.
