चिकित्सा और पैरा-मेडिकल महाविद्यालयों की संख्या बढ़ाना ताकि भारत मानव संसाधन में आत्मनिर्भर हो, और हर राज्य में एक एम्स जैसा संस्थान स्थापित करना।

The 2014 manifesto's health chapter promises two things in one sentence: "Increase the number of medical and para-medical colleges to make India self sufficient in human resources, and set up an AIIMS like institute in every state."

On institutions, the record is one of real expansion. The party's own 2024 manifesto lists among its achievements "7 IITs, 16 IIITs, 7 IIMs, 15 AIIMS, 315 Medical Colleges and 390 universities have been set-up in the past" decade. Fifteen new AIIMS is a substantial addition to a country that had six outside Delhi in 2014. It is also not one in every state — India has 28 states and eight union territories — and the great majority of those institutions were sanctioned or opened after the 2014-19 term, which is why delivery here is recorded as partly delivered.

The other half of the sentence is about people, and it is where the promise runs into what the government will not report.

A member asked the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on 7 August 2026 "whether there is a shortage of faculty members in nursing, dental and medical colleges, including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) across the country" and, if so, for the details.

The answer contains no number. It explains that the Indian Nursing Council, National Dental Commission and National Medical Commission "prescribe minimum faculty requirements", that compliance is checked through "periodic inspections, assessments and other regulatory mechanisms", that "Public Health is a state subject", and that "Recruitment and filling up of faculty posts is a continuous process. Vacancies arise due to retirement, resignation, expansion of institutions, creation of new posts and non-availability of suitable eligible candidates in certain specialties and locations."

That last clause is the admission. "Non-availability of suitable eligible candidates in certain specialties and locations" is a faculty shortage, described without being counted. AIIMS are central institutions, not state ones, so the state-subject point does not explain why their vacancies are not reported.

The regulatory response tells the same story more loudly. The Medical Institutions (Qualifications of Faculty) Regulations, 2025, notified on 30 June 2025, "provide for expansion of the teaching infrastructure by permitting eligible 220-bedded Government hospitals to function as teaching institutions, liberalise faculty eligibility criteria, recognise a wider pool of qualified medical and non-medical faculty, count specified administrative and regulatory experience towards teaching experience." Governments widen eligibility when they cannot fill posts under the existing rules.

Buildings were promised and buildings were built. Whether they are staffed is a question the state has chosen not to answer with figures. Our verdict is lacks context.