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From The Editor In Chief
It
is for the first time a serving prime minister of India will go under
the knife. The prime minister's health—in fact, the health of the
head of government of any country—is a national concern. In the past
few weeks, it's been very clear that all is not well with Atal Bihari
Vajpayee, beginning with the stumble after his Independence Day speech.
This was followed by evasive half-truths about the condition of his knee,
a truncated American visit and a prime minister who was visibly slowed
down while the world watched.
Even before
Vajpayee left for the US, we ran a cover story ("How Fit Is He?",
September 11) where we stated bluntly why his health matters, "not
merely because he is the PM. He is also the glue that holds the diverse
NDA together." While Vajpayee has continually played down talk about
his health, the public spectacle of increasingly lengthy pauses and physical
tardiness had raised speculation to a high pitch. Now with tremors within
the NDA coming from his coalition partners, the concern about the prime
minister's well-being is even stronger.
Vajpayee
heads for Mumbai this week for a major surgery to replace his osteoarthritis-affected
left knee. For two weeks, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) will hold
court in India's commercial capital while Vajpayee recovers from a painful
post-operative phase. As we say in our cover story this week, the Government
will be run from Breach Candy Hospital, where Vajpayee is expected to
be for the first five days-key PMO officials will be at an adjacent guest
house of the Atomic Energy Commission—before he and his team shift
for a week to the Raj Bhavan. Our story takes you into the heart of this
medical event, for which specialist knee surgeon Chittaranjan Ranawat
is flying in from the US. Besides presenting a primer of the operation
and case studies of well-known people who have undergone the same surgery,
we ask some key questions: How will the Government function and who will
take decisions? What are the logistics of this mammoth exercise of shifting
the country's power base for two weeks? Who are the key players and trouble-shooters?
It's a national
event but an intensely personal moment. We wish the prime minister a successful
operation and a speedy recovery.
(Aroon
Purie)
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