Another example of first mover advantage for politicians from dynastic rule; they know the tricks of the trade very well!
Narasimha Rao's son leaves hospital
after giving ulcers to doctors
Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad
It is a feat that is worth going in the record books. Dr P V Ranga Rao, former Andhra Pradesh minister and eldest son of former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao, left the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences on Tuesday after spending 513 days as an in-patient.
It all began on February 3, 2002, when the Hyderabad City police arrested Dr Rao after Tamil movie star Rajnikanth slapped a case on him and his private secretary for taking Rs 20.6 million on the pretext of producing a film.
Hours after his arrest, Dr Rao complained of chest pain and was admitted to NIMS.
Dr Rao was later discharged, but he got himself readmitted on April 23, 2001. The doctors soon opined that he had recovered and only needed to visit the hospital's out-patient section for regular checkups.
However, Dr Rao had some other ideas. He refused to leave, complaining of some ailment or the other. "Since he is a patient with a history of diabetes and hypertension, having undergone bypass surgery, how could we ask him to leave the hospital when he complained of some problem or the other all these days," a NIMS official said.
Dr Rao has run up a massive bill of Rs 1.25 million, including Rs 7.7 million towards the rent of his room. There is also a bill of Rs 200,000 towards the room rental for the Special Protection Group commandos who were guarding him.
He has not paid the bills, claming that he is broke. When the hospital authorities took up the matter with his father, he said he would tell his other children to clear the dues. Dr Rao later paid Rs 50,000 towards the first instalment.
What is most interesting is that Dr Rao used to leave the hospital premises regularly to attend to his personal work. The hospital authorities had to literally beg him to vacate the room.
Incidentally, Dr Rao decided to leave NIMS only after an out-of-court settlement with Rajnikanth.
"Unless a patient is in a coma, we don't keep him for such a long time," one official said. "However, since Ranga Rao happened to be a VIP and the son of VVIP, we could not send him out after treatment. Everyone would have blamed us if we were to throw him out, especially if something untoward happened to him after leaving the hospital."
Dr Rao, a 59-year-old bachelor, was twice elected to the state assembly. He served as school education minister in the Cabinets of former chief ministers N Janardhan Reddy and K Vijayabhaskar Reddy.
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