United States (US) President Donald Trump recently suspended financial support to

the World Health Organization (WHO) and has threatened to quit the world body. This
news took me back nearly 40 years when, while serving in the Union ministry of
health and family welfare, I was involved in dealing with a similar threat from the
US.

It was May 1982. I was in Geneva to represent India in the annual session of the
World Health Assembly (WHA) which, at that time, had over 160 member countries and
met for two weeks to deal with varied health and medical issues. The large agenda
was split and discussed in two commissions, named “A” and “B”.

The 1982 WHA unanimously elected me to chair the functioning of commission “B”. Our
then ambassador in Geneva, AP Venkateswaran, reported this event as a “diplomatic
victory” for India, especially as it came without lobbying. As in the functioning
of any United Nations organisation, WHO member-countries also never lost an
opportunity to raise health issues which provided an opening for airing their views
on current political controversies. Before the WHA proceedings began, I carefully
read every agenda item entrusted to my commission. Neither I, nor the more
experienced secretariat personnel, realised that a certain matter would generate an
upheaval that would threaten the existence of WHO. This related to a draft
resolution, moved by a group of Afro-Arab countries, which sought to focus
attention on the poor health conditions of the Palestinians living in the Israeli-
occupied territories. I was not overly concerned by this as there were similar
items which sought the provision of health assistance to refugees in Cyprus and
Lebanon and to the flood-affected in Yemen.

Former WHO director-general, Halfdan Mahler, was on the dais with me when the
aforesaid agenda item came up and I allowed the leader of the Palestine delegation
to introduce it. Inter-alia, the agenda note referred to an expert committee report
on the subject and to the reports presented by the Palestinian Liberation
Organization, the Israeli health ministry and the specialised UN agency for
providing relief to the Palestinian refugees. While calling for the establishment
of WHO-supervised health centres in the occupied territories, reference was also
drawn to an earlier UN General Assembly resolution on this matter. Before I could
announce the name of the next delegate to speak on the subject, the leader of the
US delegation, Dr John Bryant (also a member of the executive committee), wanted to
make an urgent statement. Normally, comments from the floor were allowed only after
the sponsoring country representatives complete their statements.

Bryant raised serious objection to a portion of the operative paragraph of the

draft resolution which, if accepted, would have the effect of cutting-off the
membership rights and services of Israel. He announced that if this matter was
discussed any further, he was under instruction to state that his country “here and
now suspends its budgetary support” (which was about half of WHO’s annual budget)
and withdraws from WHO. As soon as Bryant completed his statement, delegates from
Israel and several other countries stood up and pronounced full support for the US’
stand. Delegates from Palestine and many Arab and African countries stood up and
voiced support for the Palestinian cause. The ensuing pandemonium was
unprecedented.

I kept striking the gavel and calling for order till there was a lull in which I
announced a break to consider how WHA could proceed further. After a brief exchange
with Mahler, I stepped into the assembly hall and for the next hour-and-a-half held
discussions with the leaders of the warring groups. I found that there was no ready
meeting point and also realised that if the situation was allowed to go unchecked,
there would be grave consequences for WHO, besides the failure of my chairmanship.
It was already past the lunch hour. Getting back on the dais, I informed WHA that
my parleys would continue and the commission would reassemble next morning at the
scheduled time. For the next 12 hours, I held intensive discussions with
protagonists on both sides and also met several eminent health ministers (attendin