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Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
The cancellation of the scheduled Cabinet meeting on Monday on account of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's indisposition should not be interpreted as his ill health because "he is fine and will bounce back to official business after a short rest," a senior government official said in New Delhi.
Vajpayee also cancelled his remaining engagements on Monday, which, added to his cancelled press conference on Sunday in Lucknow on account of a sore throat, has revived speculation that his health is a matter of concern.
This has brought to the fore the controversial report in Time magazine on June 17, 2002, relating to Vajpayee's ill health, which had elicited angry rejoinders from the prime minister's office.
The government is still sore about the issue. An official told rediff.com, "We regret that the distinction between objective reporting and circulation-boosting sensationalism even in the foreign media is getting increasingly blurred."
He said that when an internationally renowned magazine like Time portrayed the prime minister as being in poor health, it was expected to have relevant attribution and quotes from doctors and officials concerned. "But it was a figment of the imagination and we made our displeasure obvious," he said.
He pointed out that the prime minister had an extremely hectic schedule virtually every day, which ranged from attending Cabinet meetings to inaugurating various conferences and seminars, and other official engagements.
"Exhaustion does set in if you have such a hectic schedule daily, but that does not mean that that he has a serious health problem," the official asserted. "He will shortly bounce back."
He pointed out that Vajpayee had just returned from an official tour of Cyprus, Denmark, and the United Kingdom, and "a sore throat or a cold cannot be interpreted as worrisome health."
The prime minister's officer on special duty, Ashok Tandon, said that doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi had examined the prime minister and advised him rest.
Asked when Vajpayee would return to official business, Tandon expressed hope that it could be as early as Tuesday, provided the doctors gave him the go-ahead.
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