Dr. H V Hande in Politics
As his busy practice was going on, Dr. Hande’s interest in politics(which was dormant for few years after his stint in the Quit India Movement), was rekindled, in 1963. This time he set his eyes on the prestigious ‘GRADUATES’ CONSTITUENCY’ which elected persons to the 63 Member ‘MADRAS LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL’ known as upper chamber. In those days the Legislative Council, was very much respected, more than even the Legislative Assembly. The first chairman of the Legislative Council was Dr. U. Rama Rau. Several stalwarts like, Rajaji, Dr. A.L. Mudaliar, RT. Hon Srinivasa Sastry, Dr. V.K. John, Raja Sir Muthiah Chettiar, Dr. P.V. Cherian and others were members of the Legislative Council.
Six members used to be elected each from the Graduates’ Constituency as well as the Teachers’ Constituency to the Legislative Council. In fact, Prof K. Anbazhagan got elected to the Legislative Council from the Teachers’ Constituency in 1962.
Working hard continuously for 3 months, Dr. Hande met almost all the Ten Thousand Graduate voters spread through the entire city of Madras and won with a huge margin. Stalwarts put up by the undivided Congress Party under Shri Kamaraj, and the undivided DMK under Anna and the two candidates of Rajaji lost their deposits. Impressed with the victory of Dr. Hande even as an independent member, Rajaji asked him to join his Swatantra Party. Consequently in the beginning of 1965, Dr. Hande joined Rajaji.
During Nov/Dec 1966 severe cyclone with heavy rains shook the city of Madras. The whole of North Madras was reeling under heavy floods. Anna’s DMK Rajaji’s Swatantra Party had by then come closer, for the 1967 elections. The 5 Assembly segments and also the North Madras Lok Sabha, were under the control of the Congress Party.
Single handed, Dr. Hande created a huge rallying point collecting rice & clothes and arranged food for one week for the displaced persons in North Madras especially in Vysarpadi. This attracted the attention of Anna who began telling all the DMK functionaries in North Madras, “Work like Hande”.
In 1967, when the actual elections for the Fourth Lok Sabha, came along with the State Assembly elections in February. Anna not only gave one of the Assembly segments, namely, ‘Park Town’ to Swatantra Party, but also suggested Dr. Hande’s name, because Park Town Constituency was a Congress stronghold and Anna did not want to loose it.
Rajaji, prompted by Anna, fielded Dr. Hande in the Park Town Constituency though his term of M.L.C was to be over 3years later. The opponent was a strong Congress Candidate Mrs. T.N. Ananda Nayaki who had in her earlier bouts defeated very powerful DMK candidates. When election results started coming in, Shri Kamaraj was then the A.I.C.C President was in the Airport on his way to Delhi. The moment he was told that Congress had lost Park Town (which was the first result to come) Shri Kamaraj said “Then we have lost the entire State”.
In the T.N. Assembly, though Dr. Hande was functioning in the opposition, Anna often used to compliment him for his constructive criticisms. After Anna’s demise, Rajaji and Karunanidhi fell apart. Though the Swatantra Party was a smaller opposition(the Congress was the main opposition) Dr. Hande took up a dominating role and became the defacto opposition leader.
In 1971, after the Congress party split as Indira Congress and Congress (O), the former, lead by Indira Gandhi, aligned with Karunanidhi’s DMK, while Kamaraj’s Cong (O) aligned with Rajaji’s Swatantra Party. The alliance pattern dramatically changed. Contesting again from the same Park Town Constituency, Dr. Hande trounced a powerful DMK stalwart, namely, Mr. Asai Thambi, with a bigger margin, though the wave in Tamilnadu was almost a sweep in favour of Smt. Indira Gandhi and Shri Karunanidhi. While Dr. Hande had once again emerged as a clear defacto opposition leader inside the Assembly, he had to wage his internal battles inside the Swatantra Party. While attempts were made by a clique in the party to marginalise him, he fought back by setting his goal as an All India Secretary of the party. Fortunately for him, instead of the top brass, nominating party functionaries. elections were held. 150 Swatantra Party National Council Members had to vote for electing 4 National Secretaries. Seven members contested. Everyone in the party was stunned, to see Dr. Hande securing 121 votes; the Industries Minister of Orissa, Shri Harihar Patel secured 110 votes; Shri. R.K. Amin MP from Gujarat secured 104 votes, while Bhanu Pratap Singh (who was later nominated as Karnataka Governor) secured 94 votes. Dr. Hande received the highest number of votes.
In the meantime there was a kaleidoscopic change in Tamilnadu Politics. On 10.10.1972 the DMK split as a result of MGR being ‘thrown out’ of DMK by Mr. Karunanidhi and others. A week later on 17.10.1972, MGR started Anna DMK (ADMK). While Shri Kamaraj dubbed both the ‘factions’ as ‘rotten’. Rajaji strongly supported MGR by announcing “Removing MGR from the DMK is like removing Anna posthumously from the DMK”. A couple of months later Rajaji passed away on 25.12.1972.
Dr. Hande being a staunch follower of Rajaji, MGR invited Dr. Hande to join him and made him the first HQRS Secretary of the ADMK. This was during June 1973. All the party papers and files had to go through Dr. Hande, with his notes, before being put up to the leader MGR who was the General Secreatary of the party. In 1976, during the ‘Emergency’ Karunanidhi’s DMK was dismissed by Smt. Indira Gandhi. In 1977 February, the Emergency was lifted and the Lok Sabha elections were held. Though Smt. Indira Gandhi ‘s Congress (I) had lost heavily all over India (including herself), thanks to her alliance with MGR’s AIADMK (by then the party was converted as All India Anna DMK), the duo received a massive mandate in Tamilnadu. A few months later, the T.N Assembly elections were held. MGR decided to face the election without Cong (I) alliance, and won with a clear majority. However, in the city of Madras, MGR’S AIADMK lost 13 out of the 14 Assembly segments. A year later, The Madras City Graduates’ Constituency was ready for elections. Dr. Hande who had not contested for the Assembly, was fielded by MGR. Dr. Hande won with a huge mandate, while the DMK Candidate Misa Ganesan lost his deposit. This was in 1978. MGR congratulated Dr. Hande for winning in Chennai City (covering all the 14 MLA segments) where only a year ago, DMK had established its supremacy while AIADMK secured only one seat.
In 1979, Dr. Hande was elevated as the sole Organising Secretary of the AIADMK. In 1980, Lok Sabha elections, MGR lost badly to the DMK-Indira combination, getting only 2 out of 40 L.S seats(Including Pondicherry). MGR’s Govt was dismissed and the Assembly was dissolved a month later. In June 1980, fresh elections were held for the State Assembly. Though Dr. Hande had 4 more years as M.L.C, MGR fielded him against Karunanidhi from Anna Nagar. There was a great deal of confusion during counting. Finally Mr. Karunanidhi was declared elected with a margin of 699 votes. MGR bounced back with a good majority and became the Chief Minister and took Dr. Hande into his Cabinet as the Health Minister.
When Dr. Hande took over, the portfolio of Health, he was shocked to find the Maternal & Infant Mortality rates very high. Within 6 ½ years of his office, he brought the Infant Mortality down from 118 to 60, almost on par with Kerala which had the lowest figure because of its very high literacy rate. For nearly 20years, the Health Dept had not paid adequate attention to the field of PRIMARY HEALTH CARE. Only 3000 odd Sub Centers had been built during the period 1965 – 1980. Dr. Hande had held office for 6yrs & 4months. By 1986, When Dr. Hande had demitted office, the number of Sub Centers rose up to 7500! The incidence of Leprosy was also drastically reduced. When Dr. Hande took over the Health Ministry, the prevalence & incidence of fresh cases of leprosy was very high. They were 21 & 25.6 respectively per thousand. The 2nd highest in India. Soon Dr. Hande launched a massive programme of screening for leprosy. He involved the District Collectors, District Health Officers, District Education Officers and organized mass screening of School students, so that the leprosy patches could be identified and treated at a very early stage. While in 1979 nearly 15 lakhs students were being screened, by the time Dr. Hande demitted office in 1980, 75 lakh students were brought under the scanner. This was a record for India.
The Union Health Minister Shri P.V. Narasimha Rao(who later became the P.M) was impressed with Dr. Hande’s performance in Tamilnadu. Smt. Indira Gandhi asked the U.P Health Minister Shri. Lokpathi Tripathi (the high profile son of a former C.M of U.P – Kamalapathi Tripathi) to see and study the work done by Tamilnadu in the field of Health.
Dr. Hande, by dint of his hard work brought Tamilnadu in the first slot in all the Health Parameters, continuously for 3yrs. As a result, Tamilnadu was allotted a special grant of Rs. 7.5 crores (a good sum in those days) which could be used for improving the Health infrastructure of the State at the discretion of the Health Minister, without having to go through the Finance Dept. It was only from this fund, a huge Maternity block was built in 1985 in the Kilpauk Medical College, the old Alma Master of Dr. Hande.
The medical council of India honoured Dr. Hande with the Dr. B.C. Roy award in 1985. It is to be noted that this award is rarely given to Ministers or Administrators.
As things were progressing well, everyone in T.N was in for a shock, because of the sudden crisis in the health of the Chief Minister MGR. He suddenly took ill on the night of 5th Oct 1984 with Kidney failure and was admitted in a private hospital. On 13th night he developed a huge ‘blood clot’ in his brain leading to a stroke and loss of consciousness. Dr. Hande did a marathon work.
With the help of Dr. Palani G. Periyasamy, Dr. Hande identified Dr. Eli Friedman Dr. Sripada Rao, Nephrologists from New York, Dr. Sterling Meyer a high profile Neurologist from Houston, & Dr. Christopher Blagg from Seattle, and brought them to Chennai. A collective decision was taken to transport MGR to New York for further treatment. special Aircraft was organized to fly Chief Minister MGR to New York, Brooklyn Medical Center. A Kidney transplant operation was done and MGR was brought back hale and hearty in February 1985, the whole Tamilnadu including the opposition parties complimented Dr. Hande for his organisational skills.