Harsh Vardhan
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A brief biography
As in 2019, May
May 31, 2019: The Times of India
Born: Dec 13, 1954
Fondly known as ‘doctor saab’ in Delhi circles, Harsh Vardhan is among BJP’s old world politicians. The good doctor, who has held ministerial portfolios in the Centre and the state, nurtured the same assembly constituency —Krishna Nagar in east Delhi — since 1992 till he shifted to Chandni Chowk for the 2014 Lok Sabha election. As health minister in Delhi, he earned recognition for the universal coverage of the polio campaign.
As Union environment minister, he is credited with motivating the country’s scientists to come up with new technologies, processes and products that can provide innovative solutions to people’s problems. But in recent years, he has been known more for his controversial remarks than significant work. In 2014, as union health minister he advocated fidelity rather than use of condoms to tackle AIDS. Then in 2018 as science and technology minister he announced that cosmologist Stephen Hawking had declared the Vedas were superior to Einstein’s theory of relativity. It later turned out that he had fallen for a fake Facebook page. As environment minister, he rubbished claims that bad air was killing people.
