Mansukh Mandaviya’s important new job as India’s health minister has brought the Gujarat politician into the spotlight, also earning him a troll attack on Twitter for tweets that he had allegedly posted in the past and that have since been deleted. In his support, people have said it is unfair to target the new minister over poor English. 

With Mandaviya’s alleged tweets now deleted, screenshots are being shared,
one of which says, “Mahatma Gandhiji is our nation of
father.” it is dated August 8, 2018. A few days later, Mansukh Mandaviya,
had apparently tweeted, “Happy indipedent day”, misspelling Independence.

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There are screenshots of other
tweets in circulation, some with messages that detractors say are awkward
historical remarks from a man taking over as the country’s health minister at a
critical moment. Unlike his predecessor, Dr Harshvardhan, who was sacked
yesterday, Mansukh Mandaviya is not a medical doctor.  

He had allegedly tweeted in
March 2015, “Where Allopathy fails, Ayurveda— the science of life is an
answer. Launched mobile Ayurveda Clinic Van, Bhavnagar.”

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Screenshots also show Mansukh
Mandaviya tweeting in April 2015, “Today is the World Homeopathy
Day- Homeopathy works with the body’s natural healing forces instead of against
them (suppressively).

The new health minister
apparently did his own share of trolling in the past. A number of his older
tweets are attacks on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. Like when he
tweeted, “Rahul gandhi describe 3,000 years of Indian history including Mughal
bad shah Akbar is it proud of India (sic)”.

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Author and political
commentator Anand Ranganathan sprung to the minister’s defense. “Those mocking
HM Mansukh Mandaviya for his broken English, judge him by his work, you morons.
The SINGLE GREATEST contribution by an Indian politician, living or dead, is
the midday meal scheme. Kamaraj launched it. And leave alone broken English, he
never even went to school,” Ranganathan tweeted. 

Tehseen Poonawala, also a
political commentator and regular on TV debates, tweeted:
“Unfortunate to see so many fellow citizens trolling Mansukh Mandaviya ji for
his lack of proficiency in English. Critic him on faults wrt his work &
Ministry. ” (sic)

Mansukh
Mandaviya has had a long career in politics starting at the young age of 20. In
2015, he was selected to represent India at the UN where he spoke about ‘2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development’.

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A member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament, since 2012,
Mansukh Mandaviya has made steady progress in his career since he first became
a minister in 2016, when he took over as the Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways, for Shipping and for
Chemicals & Fertilizers. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned for his
second term in 2019, he again picked his young colleague from his home state
Gujarat on his team, this time handing him independent charge as minister of
state for shipping and for Chemicals & Fertilizers. 

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Promotions continued on Thursday when Mandaviya took oath as a Cabinet minister, with the twin
charge of health, one of the government’s most crucial focus areas amid the
Covid pandemic, and chemicals and fertilizers, which he has now handled for a
number of years.