When United States President Barack Obama was recently declared fit for duty following his first periodic physical examination as president, all details of the medical test were made public. So everybody came to know that even as the US president was found in good health, his physician, Dr Jeffrey Kuhlman, had cautioned him against smoking and consumption of alcohol and junk food.

Isn't it time India followed suit and lifted the veil of secrecy that often surrounds the health of its public functionaries? Doesn't India have an equal right to information about the health of its prime minister, for example?

Few would forget the speculations, including in the media, that did the rounds when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was prime minister. Think back further and more names of prime ministers and presidents will readily come to mind. Perhaps nowhere is our sense of the public and the private more warped than in such cases.

Given the enormity of stakes riding on the health of our prime minister, though, shouldn't the government make public details of his medical reports?