Mumbai: Maharashtra Public Health Minister Tanaji Sawant, who was in the headlines for allegedly mistaking Haffkine Institute for Training, Research and Testing to be a person named Haffkine, on Tuesday slammed the media for projecting him in a bad light.
"Am I mad? Don’t you think I understand these things? Give me the proof that I said that Haffkine is a person. What type of social media trolling is this? If I have actually referred to Haffkine as an individual, I am ready to resign right now," a visibly irritated Sawant told reporters in Solapur district.
According to recent media reports, Sawant allegedly mistook Haffkine Institute for a person called Haffkine and had to be corrected by officials during a meeting at Pune Hospital.
On Tuesday, irked over this report, Sawant started firing the reporters, saying: "You, the media, are not happy that this government is being formed. Do you know my qualifications? I am a meritorious student throughout. I have done diplomas, degrees, post-graduation, and even doctorates. Search the internet, look at how many institutes I run, how many factories I run, and how many people I employ. More than 250 PhD holders work under me. Do I look like an illiterate minister to you all?" he asked.
This is not the first time Sawant has been trolled on social media. Last week, the schedule for his visit to Pune went viral and Sawant became the subject of various memes as the document, mentioning only the schedule from his private office to his home and back, went viral and became the topic of jokes, after which Sawant’s office revised the schedule.
Even during the recently held monsoon session of the state legislature, Sawant faced difficulty to answer questions regarding his department and faced a barrage of questions from the Opposition members. This led to intervention from Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar who asked Opposition MLAs to go slow as Sawant had just taken over the department.
Sawant is a Shiv Sena MLA from Osmanabad’s Bhoom-Paranda constituency. Earlier, Sawant was a minister for a few months in the 2014-19 BJP-Sena government led by Devendra Fadnavis. However, after the formation of the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, the education baron was not included in the Cabinet. Since then, he had developed differences with the Shiv Sena leadership and had stopped attending party meetings in the area. Sawant was among the first to join the rebellion against then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
