‘I couldn’t thank Mrs. Gandhi’: Sneh Bhargava, former director of AIIMS

“If Indira Gandhi can run the country, why can’t a woman run the country’s premier medical institution?” This was Dr. Sneh Bhargava’s reply to people upset that a woman from a low-profile Radiology department was appointed as director of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, in 1984. She remains the first — and only woman — to have helmed AIIMS in the past seven decades. But what Dr. Bhargava never would have imagined was how day one as AIIMS director on October 31, 1984, would unfold.

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had been shot by two bodyguards in the morning and was rushed to AIIMS. “She had approved my appointment as AIIMS director barely 10 days ago; I never got an opportunity to thank her. At 9 a.m. on October 31 the meeting confirming me as director was underway when we were informed the Prime Minister was in casualty. It was unthinkable that a PM could come to the hospital without prior notice. I sensed something was terribly amiss,” recalls Dr. Bhargava.

When she entered the casualty, she saw two resident doctors in a state of shock who pointed towards a gurney, on which the body lay still. Dr. Bhargava saw Mrs. Gandhi’s signature grey-streaked hair, the pronounced aquiline nose and her saffron sari soaked in blood. The Prime Minister’s personal secretary R.K. Dhawan, her close aide M.L. Fotedar and daughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi were in tears. For the next four hours, the doctors tried to revive the Prime Minister, but in vain. Dr. Bhargava had realised this early enough.

It was one of the most difficult days at work, admits Dr. Bhargava. And she has had several tough days, by virtue of being among the few women radiologists in the country at a time when the discipline was still evolving. Known for her guts to call out and stand against political pressure, Dr. Bhargava’s priority remained patient health care. When the pandemic forced her to stay home, she began writing her memoir.

On June 23, Dr. Bhargava turned 95 and released her book, The Woman Who Ran AIIMS. Edited excerpts from an interview at her Delhi home:

Question: How do you remember October 31, 1984, with such clarity?

Answer: My memory guided me. I have always done my work passionately and enjoyed every moment; that is why everything came back to me smoothly. Many times I felt I haven’t done anything spectacular that needs to be documented. But as thoughts and memories kept flowing, I felt I had a story to tell.

Q: It is such an irony that on the day you joined as AIIMS director, the woman who appointed you was brought for emergency treatment. Did you have a meltdown?

A: Of course. But I knew I had to do my work as a professional. The meltdown had to be kept in the background. My only regret is I wasn’t able to personally thank Mrs. Gandhi for believing in me and giving me the responsibility of running AIIMS.

Q: Could you describe the day?

A: My instinct told me something was wrong because the Prime Minister was brought to casualty without prior information. I saw her profusely bleeding body and immediately decided with two of our top surgeons to put her on the heart lung machine and see if we could revive her. We did not know how and what had happened to her. My foremost thought was to keep her body safe.
There were bullets in her chest, liver, abdomen which were dropping off on the ground and blood was oozing from every organ. She had a rare B-minus blood group. The protocol dictated we keep two bottles of blood in the fridge for the Prime Minister. The two bottles finished in no time and we called up every hospital in Delhi; Only O-minus (universal donor) could be procured.
I knew Mrs. Gandhi was no more. The Congress leaders did not want a power gap and told us not to announce anything but keep working on her till the party took a decision and the President and her son reached Delhi. Our surgeons kept infusing blood through the multiple wounds in the body and it kept draining out.

Q: How difficult was it to embalm the body?

A: We were unable to inject the embalming fluid through the arteries. It kept oozing out. So the anatomy department ensured the face was kept intact as there were no wounds there. I requested Sonia Gandhi to go home and get a fresh set of clothes for Mrs Gandhi.

Q: How did you manage with other logistics and the swelling crowd outside AIIMS?

A: There were tense moments. One of our Sikh doctors fled the OT when he learnt Mrs. Gandhi had been killed by her Sikh bodyguards. Gautam Kaul, who was the Additional Commissioner of Police and a first cousin of Mrs. Gandhi, handled the bandobast and also helped us with medico-legal formalities. It never struck us that there would be an inquiry.

We had made only surgical notes but he told us to prepare a formal post-mortem report with photographs and also get a ballistic report and referred us to a ballistic expert, whom we got into AIIMS with much difficulty.

As doctors, our focus was on controlling Mrs. Gandhi’s blood loss and we hadn’t taken an X-ray of her leg where she was first hit. When we took the X-ray of her leg, it revealed that the bullet was different from the ones that were lodged in her body. This was the first evidence of use of two different guns. We recorded it and it helped us during the inquest later.