NEW DELHI: Is the Prime Minister more unwell than is generally known? The question of P.V.Narasimha Rao’s health assumes importance in the wake of information reaching from reasonably reliable sources.
On the one hand, Rao is reportedly suffering from emphysema, a lung disease. On the other hand, he has been reportedly advised by physicians to undergo a heart bypass surgery in the next three months because of his arteries. His doctors have advised him to undergo surgery at Houston, Texas, in the United States since records of his earlier bypass done there are available.
The Prime Minister’s Office, when contacted declined to answer any questions relating to Rao’s health. Asked whether the Prime Minister was unwell, whether he suffered from emphysema and whether he had been advised to undergo heart bypass.
‘Surgery, the reply was: No comment.
Our sources say that the Prime Minister was not admitted to the hospital in Kerala under his own name though we could not confirm this. Doctors were reportedly swom to Secrecy and the purpose of his visit was not disclosed. Enquiries at the hospital in ‘Thiruvananthapuram confirmed that Rao did spend about half day there under an assumed name. The hospital authorities declined to divulge any information on the Prime Minister’s health or even to confirm officially that he had checked in for an examination.
Rao did not preside over the meeting of the executive committee of the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) held recently. This was an unusual absence for a party’s top leader. The general body meeting of the CPP was also called off. While party sources said that the meeting had to be cancelled because Rao was suffering from a ‘bad throat,’ party spokesman V.N, Gadgil said:” don’t know the reason for the cancellation of the meeting.”
How soon the Prime Minister should have a bypass surgery is an important question in the current political circumstances, especially if the operation has to be performed in the U.S, Elections to five state assemblies have now been officially scheduled for the month of February 1995.
If he has to have an urgent treatment in the US, Rao would have to be away from the country for at least three weeks at a politically sensitive time.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 16, 1994
