UP health minister to seek 'expert' opinion on Rahul's 'immunity'

Opposition leaders as well as netizens lashed out against him over his remarks

As former Congress president Rahul Gandhi's 'padayatra' (foot march) wearing tee shirt in the biting cold hogged the limelight in the media, Uttar Pradesh health minister Brajesh Pathak on Thursday said that he would seek ''expert opinion'' on the ''source of immunity'' of the Congress leader.

Pathak, when pointed out by the reporters that Rahul was walking wearing only a tee shirt in his party's ongoing 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' while he (minister) was clad in a woollen jacket to ward off the cold, remarked that he had also seen the media reports in this regard and that he had asked the health experts to find out where from the Congress leader was getting such immunity.

''It is important to know how a man can survive in 3-4 degree temperature wearing only a tee shirt.....I have sought to know the answer from the health experts,'' Pathak told reporters.

Also Read | Media notices my T-shirt, but ignores poor farmers, labourers in torn clothes: Rahul

In reply to another question in this regard, Pathak, who was also the deputy chief minister of the state, said that Rahul, by wearing a tee shirt in this cold weather, had proved that he did everything that was opposite to the deeds of the common people.

''It is like the kings in the old times who dressed differently than the common people.....he (Rahul) has proved that he too considers himself to be a king,'' the minister added.

Although the minister's remarks might appear to have been made in a sarcastic vein, some opposition leaders as well as the netizens lashed out against him over his remarks. ''The minister should tell the people as to how he managed to become the deputy CM of UP after hopping to the saffron party from Congress and BSP,'' said a senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader here.

One of the netizens asked the minister to pay more attention to the poor health services in UP rather than to Rahul Gandhi's t-shirt.

Rahul had also asked the media to focus on the torn clothes worn by the poor and labourers. His sister and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, when queried in this regard, remarked that Rahul did not feel cold as he had ''worn the sheet of truth''.