Over his five-decade-long career, P. Venugopal was known to be a man of few words. Oral communication was never quite his forte ? his colleagues at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi say its director ? whose expulsion the Delhi High Court has put a stay on ? always preferred to let his hands do the talking. And considering that he was associated ? in one form or another ? with some 50,000 heart operations, it wouldn’t be wrong to suppose that, as a cardiac surgeon, Venugopal had said enough already.

What, then, could be more ironic than the fact that it was his near-vestigial mouth that did Venugopal in? At an AIIMS general body meeting on Wednesday, Venugopal was found guilty of having flouted the institute’s conduct rules by verbally accusing health minister Anbumani Ramadoss a few days ago of interfering in the affairs of AIIMS. Venugopal’s demeanour was found objectionable by 14 of the 17 members present at the meeting. The litany of complaints was a long one ? he had granted medicos permission to use the institute premises for anti-reservation protests in May, and then unilaterally decided to pay resident doctors for the days on which they had struck work. The much-expected sack ? given that personal differences between Venugopal and the health minister were no closet affair ? came that very evening.

Venugopal, predictably, didn’t speak much. He let his actions take over ? public interest litigation was promptly filed in the Delhi High Court challenging the expulsion. That BJP leader Arun Jaitley is representing Venugopal in court doesn’t surprise many ? the surgeon, who was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1998 for performing India’s first heart transplant operation in 1994, was long known to have been a political being. “He knows the game of politics,” says a former AIIMS doctor.

Political patronage, not to mention professional accolades, didn’t come to Venugopal for nothing. The 64-year-old surgeon’s odyssey began in 1960, when he left his village in the Rajamundhry district of Andhra Pradesh to come to New Delhi and pursue his undergraduate studies at AIIMS. A gold medalist, he returned from the United States in 1974 after a stint at the Texas Heart Institute to establish an open-heart surgery programme in AIIMS under the supervision of cardiac surgeon N. Gopinath.

Old associates who have worked with him describe Venugopal as a man dedicated to his work, with a predilection for exploring new horizons in medical sciences. “The cardiothoracic and vascular centre at AIIMS (which he helped set up in 1982) was his own baby, and he worked hard to make it a world-class place,” says P.K. Dave, who preceded Venugopal as the institute’s director. “He was a kind and considerate doctor, and above all, a very good surgeon.”

Dave’s opinion is seconded by many doctors who have trained under Venugopal. “He was a noble teacher, a committed professional and a man of indomitable courage,” says A.K. Bisoi, one of Venugopal’s students and a cardiac surgeon.

But the man affectionately called ‘Chief’ by his colleagues is not universally admired. Some believe that he ran the institute, and earlier his Centre, like an autocrat. Others complain about the bouts of eccentricity that he exhibited from time to time.

If insiders are to be believed, Venugopal’s inability to communicate was often offset by actions which at times bordered on the bizarre. A resident doctor states that the director would occasionally refuse to speak to his juniors for days on end. Venugopal had once reportedly caught a hospital sweeper smoking a beedi inside the patients’ ward. The sweeper was allegedly locked up in a room for an entire night ? such was the director’s way of coming down on offenders.

The element of eccentricity also seemed to spill into Venugopal’s life outside the hospital. To a close circle of associates, he was known to be a man of extreme opposites. A former colleague recalls how a celebrity couple, upon paying a visit to the doctor’s residence for consultation, were surprised to be led into a spartan drawing room where trunks covered with bedspreads had been placed for guests to sit on. The austere Venugopal, who is known to lunch on frugalities such as rice, curd and pickle, urged the husband ? a former nawab ? to control his alcohol intake. And then, looking at his watch, he remarked: “It’s eight-thirty now, so how about a drink?”

That Venugopal is not much loved in the institute is apparent by the long list of grievances that his colleagues hold against him. A handful of Venugopal’s critics within the medical fraternity even go to the extent of picking holes in the pioneering heart transplant effort that put both Venugopal and AIIMS on the global map. It was, they claim, a senior doctor in Venugopal’s team who had performed the hands-on surgery, while Venugopal, as the senior, had merely watched on.

The doctor, who now works with a leading private hospital in the capital, was cautious when contacted by The Telegraph. “He was a wonderful mentor, and I don’t want to be dragged into the controversy at this juncture,” was all he would say.

Nevertheless, the tongues continue to wag. And while the health minister is nobody’s favourite either, many within the critics’ lobby are relieved at the fact that Venugopal has been cut to size. But that isn’t quite the opinion shared by Venugopal’s supporters, who have struck work yet again and are sitting out on a hunger strike within the institute’s premises. “Venugopal is the emblem of the autonomy of AIIMS and we have resolved to stand by him and save the institute,” says B.K. Khaitan, an AIIMS doctor at the helm of the protests.

As for Venugopal, the long and winding court proceedings have just begun. And the man will perhaps be hoping he can speak his heart out to the extent of influencing the jury. That could be difficult, for oration is a skill not naturally granted to people. And Venugopal seems to be horribly out of practice.

the flip side

Anbumani Ramadoss’s pet peeves (apart from Venugopal):

The cancer stick: Ramadoss stunned the film industry last year by pressing for a ban on smoking on celluloid
Rajnikanth: The man with the cancer stick has been a favourite punching bag of amadoss’s party, PMK
The fizz-sellers: The minister has urged celebrities not to endorse cola drinks.