DR Jai Prakash Tiwari, the Head of the Department of Nephrology, has finally been permitted to occupy the dean’s office at the Goa Medical College & Hospital. Four years after he was selected for promotion to the post of dean by the Goa Public Service Commission. In 2022 Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has issued an order to appoint Dr Tiwari as the dean succeeding Dr Pradeep Naik, Head of the Ophthalmology Department.
Under pressure from Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, Dr Tiwari’s appointment was kept in abeyance for four years. Effectively, Dr Tiwari loses out on four years in the position of GMC dean. The delay in appointing him as the dean means that he will now enjoy a very short tenure as the dean of the GMC.
IT’S an irony that Dr Tiwari perhaps, owes his appointment as dean to the humiliation of Dr Rudresh Kuttikar in an incident which happened at the GMC on June 7, 2025. It may be recalled that Health Minister Vishwajit Rane “suspended Dr Rudresh Kuttikar, the Chief Medical Officer in the Casualty department.” Dr Kuttikar was apparently suspended for refusing to provide a B12 injection to an elderly patientL, who was the mother-in-law of the senior reporter at the Gomantak daily, Vilas Mahadik.
Reportedly, Dr Kuttikar had told the elderly patient that Casualty at the GMC was only for emergency patients and not for routine procedures like giving B12 injections. The reporter Vilas Mahadik contacted the then dean Dr Shivanand Bandekar as the patient was recovering from an orthopedic procedure. The dean agreed with the CMO and asked the reporter to take his mother-in-law to the Orthopedic Ward for the injection to be given.
The OPD, which normally provides such services, was closed that Saturday because it was a public holiday for Eid on June 7. Vishwajit Rane stormed into the Casualty, humiliated the CMO and asked him to get out. In the aftermath of a widely reported incident which was videod and distributed, drawing shock and distress from many, GMC doctors led by the Goa Association of Resident Doctors, went on an indefinite strike to protest against the behavior of Health Minister Vishwajit Rane.
With so much ire coming his way Rane offered his half-hearted regrets courtesy a television channel and over social media. He apologized for the tone in which he ticked off the CMO but not the censure itself. Vishwajit Rane insisted that he would not tolerate ill treatment of poor patients. The striking doctors refused what they called a “studio” apology and continued their agitation for an apology in Casualty where the unsavory incidenat had happened.
The striking doctors were supported by not only the Indian Medical Association branch in Goa but also the parent body. The consultant and even dean Dr Shivanand Bandekar, and Medical Superintendent Dr Rajesh Patil supported the striking doctors. The humiliated CMO said the strike would not be called off till the health minister came personally to Casualty and apologized.
Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant was looking for opportunity to cut Vishwajit Rane down to size. He took the matter into his hands and invited the striking doctors and humiliated CMO for talks at the chief minister’s official residence at Altinho. All the demands of the striking doctors, including putting an end to the VVIP culture were agreed. However, the CM could not prevail upon Vishwajit Rane to do an apology to the CMO at Casualty.
On the third day of strike on June 10, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant himself called at the GMC at about 1.30pm. He had a meeting with GARD and Dr Rudresh Kuttikar in the dean’s office. The meeting seemingly to redress the demands of the doctors turned into a joke. It was not clear who staged the drama of apologizing to the Chair – representing the health minister presumably or at least his position. Instead of any apology to Dr Rudresh Kuttikar and the striking doctors they were asked to apologize to the Chair and what it signified.
Clearly CMO Dr Rudresh Kuttikar had been pressurized by the CM not to insist on an apology from the health minister, Vishwajit Rane. There is no evidence that the chief minister offered an apology to Dr Kuttikar. In any case at the end of the meeting Dr Kuttikar seemed to have surrendered to the chief minister’s request and after the Chair apology disgusted members of the GARD called off the agitation, and ironically, they felt they were let down by Dr Rudresh Kuttikar.
We understand the CM was not happy with the role of the now former dean of GMC, Dr Shivanand Bandekar, in the incident. To the credit of Dr Shivanand Bandekar he extended support to the striking doctors. Apparently, he was not taken into confidence about the induction of a senior doctor from the south Goa district hospital who was brought in to sabotage the strike.
It may be recalled that Dr Shivanand Bandekar did not make any comment after the GARD chief announced that the strike was called off. While only the CMO was humiliated by Vishwajit Rane, the entire medical community felt insulted in turn by Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant who forced them to apologize to an empty if symbolic of power chair. The doctors felt like the matter was reduced to a joke in the eyes of the medical fraternity in the country.
Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant decided to further exploit the opportunity provided by Viswajit Rane. Remember Dr Shivanand Bandekar had been appointed dean on the insistence of Vishwajit Rane way back in 2002, and the appointment of Dr JP Tiwari was kept in obeyance. Rane choice was Dr Shivanand Bandekar for presumably he could rely on Dr Bandekar to be an affective partner in promoting his own agenda in healthcare development which included the super-specialty new block GMC, and creating jobs for the people of his constituency at the hospital.
Dr Shivanand Bandekar reached the milestone of 41 years in the GMC and he celebarated his 65th birthday too with a glamorous well-attended felicitation party on June 30, 2025. Sixty-five is retirement time for deans and professors at the GMC. We understand that Vishwajit Rane was keen on extending Dr Shivanand Bandekar tenure.
But Dr Bandekar realized that he had antagonized the chief minister. Perhaps the big farewell party organized by his well-wishers on June 30 in Panjim was not a coincidence. Amongst those who attended were BJP MP Sadanand Shet Tanaade and Speaker Tanavade, senior industrialist Nana Bandekar (uncle of Dr Shivanand Bandekar) and many others from the doctors fraternity.
There was a great deal of suspense on June 30-July1 about whether Dr Shivanand Bandekar’s tenure as dean would be extended. GMC doctors were in a state of anxiety and confusion. As late as 5pm on Monday, July 1 there was no sign of any order granting extension to Dr Shivanand Bandekar. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant was away in Delhi to finalize a Cabinet reshuffle and returned around 4pm on Monday, July1.
Within hours of his return to Goa he issued orders appointing Dr JP Tiwari as the dean of the Goa Medical College & Hospital. Health Minister Vishwajit Rane was apparently not consulted or made a party to the decision appointing Dr Tiwari as the dean. In fact speculation was rife that the Health Minister himself could lose his kodel in the reshuffled Cabinet.
Unfortunately, in an unseemly backlash there are those who oppose Dr Tiwari’s appointment as the GMC’s dean on the grounds that he is not a Goan and therefore should not have been appointed as the dean. This is an absurd argument because Dr Jay Tiwari has been working selflessly for the GMC for the last 31 years.
It is Dr Tiwari who has been responsible not only for the setting up of the dialysis unit at the GMC but also in pioneering kidney transplants. It is not widely known that he was disgusted by the manner in which his appointment to the dean’s position as kept in abeyance in 2022, and had even left the GMC to take a sabbatical. Though for many years he single handedly ran the Nephrology department, he was not given the status of HOD. It’s only more recently that Dr Tiwari was made HOD of Nephrology and allowed to start a postgraduate course in the department.
Dr Tiwari, apart from being a very highly respected professional, is a man of total integrity and would not be a party to corruption of any kind in administration of the GMC. Alas, we think Dr JP Tiwari like CEO Dr Rudresh Kuttikar have become akin to political football being played by Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane.