Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya was in for a pleasant surprise recently when some ministers from the opposition ruled states praised him for not politicising the Centre’s role in COVID-19 management. Health ministers from Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the two states ruled by Congress, spoke at length about how Mandaviya, after taking charge of the ministry last year, had taken every state along in the country’s fight against the pandemic. “This was surely not the case during the previous minister’s tenure,” quipped a babu in the ministry referring to Mandaviya’s predecessor Harsh Vardhan who was known to write scathing letters to opposition ruled states and then making them public!
