Deka after taking charge on Tuesday. (PTI)

New Delhi, March 10: The government has made ENT specialist R.C. Deka the new director of AIIMS, overruling opposition from the Prime Minister’s Office and ushering in hope that the appointment may act as balm for a caste-riven institute.

Non-controversial and reticent, Deka’s variance in personality with his predecessor, P. Venugopal, may help assuage years of caste-based tension on the campus, students and faculty are hoping.

Deka’s appointment today came after the PMO stalled the choice, even though a search-cum-selection committee had recommended his name.

“The single most important implication of Deka’s appointment could be the assuaging of fears that have troubled reserved category students here. We hope Deka can stop the discriminatory practices followed under the previous regime,” said Anoop Saraya, senior gastro-enterologist at AIIMS.

In 2006, at the height of a student agitation against the then proposed OBC reservations in higher education, AIIMS grew into a simmering pot of caste-based divides between students and teachers.

First exposed by The Telegraph, these divides saw reserved category students facing abuse from fellow upper-caste students, and a wing of one hostel emerging as a ghetto for the victimised students.

Reserved category students were also barred from participating with their general category peers in sports such as cricket and basketball, an inquiry committee set up by the Prime Minister revealed.

The committee held the administration under Venugopal guilty of ignoring the concerns of victimised students from the reserved categories.

Deka, who belongs to an Other Backward Class (OBC) but studied and joined AIIMS as a doctor through the general category, was selected by a search team set up after Venugopal’s retirement on July 2 last year. Deka was the senior-most faculty member at AIIMS after Venugopal, and the panel set up by health minister Anbumani Ramadoss found him the most suitable.

But Deka’s selection was questioned by some faculty members close to Venugopal, who alleged malpractice in the procurement of cochlear implant equipment by Deka.

Railway minister Lalu Prasad, however, is learnt to have spoken to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, arguing that Deka’s selection was above board.

There are no vigilance cases against Deka, Lalu is learnt to have pointed out, and the defence ministry had followed an identical procurement process in buying the same cochlear implant equipment that Deka sanctioned.

Former Speaker Purno Sangma had also asked the Prime Minister to expedite Deka’s appointment, presenting Manmohan a petition signed by 35 MPs from the Northeast. Deka is from Assam, the state the Prime Minister represents in the Rajya Sabha.