Amid accusations, Veena George hints at failed plan to meet Nadda in Delhi on ASHAs agitation

Health Minister Veena George's controversial visit to New Delhi to discuss ASHAs' issues with Union Minister J.P. Nadda.

Health Minister Veena George’s visit to New Delhi to meet the Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda, ostensibly to discuss the issue of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) agitation, erupted into a full-blown controversy on Friday, with various political parties, the media, and ASHAs themselves giving their own interpretations of the failed visit.

Ms. George, who held talks with the agitating ASHAs on March 19, said during her press conference afterwards that she would meet Mr. Nadda later in the week to discuss hiking ASHAs’ remuneration.

Ms. George had landed in New Delhi in the early hours of March 20 to seek a meeting with the Union Health Minister. She said that she had come to the national capital to meet a delegation from Cuba to hold discussions on health sector cooperation and that she was trying to meet Mr. Nadda when she expected to take up the issue of ASHAs, as well as that of allotting an AIIMS-like institution for Kerala, nod for new Medical Colleges, etc.

However, all hell broke loose after Ms. George returned to the State, unable to meet Mr. Nadda. Some sections of the media and other political parties questioned her apparently “ill-planned” Delhi visit and whether she had sought permission through proper channels and fixed an appointment with Mr. Nadda before making a beeline to Delhi.

The various interpretations of her Delhi visit appear to have also angered Ms. George, who pointed out that Mr. Nadda had been unable to meet with her while Parliament is in session, but that she would seek an appointment again. She declined to explain herself to the media, which she claimed had been biased and unreasonable regarding the ASHAs’ issue.

Meanwhile, both BJP and the Congress have accused her of neglecting the agitation of ASHAs and not doing anything to meet them half-way. In a statement here, BJP State president K. Surendran alleged that Ms. George had not sought an appointment with Mr. Nadda ahead and that she was not sincere about resolving the stalemate with ASHAs.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State secretary M.V. Govindan said a rainbow coalition of Congress, SUCI, BJP, Jamaat-e-Islami, and right-wing media was trying to hijack ASHAs’ justifiable struggle for minimum wages and wrongfully blame the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government for the lack of labour rights and minimum wages for scheme workers. At a press conference at the AKG Centre, Mr. Govindan said the media had distorted Health Minister Veena George’s visit to New Delhi for talks with a health delegation from Cuba as a botched attempt to flag the issue of ASHAs with the Union Minister of Health, J.P. Nadda.