Harsh Vardhan

Harsh Vardhan (born Harshvardhan Goel, 13 December 1954) is an Indian otorhinolaryngologist.

Vardhan finished his schooling from Happy School, Daryaganj, in 1971.

He attended Zakir Husain Delhi College of the University of Delhi and Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial Medical College of the Kanpur University, where he graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery.

He earned his Master of Surgery in Otorhinolaryngology from the same college in 1983.

He has been a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since childhood.

In 1993, Vardhan was elected as a member of the Delhi Assembly representing Krishna Nagar.

He was appointed as the State Minister of Health and Minister of Law for Delhi.

Vardhan as the State Minister of Health in 1994 oversaw the implementation of the pilot project of the Pulse Polio Programme which involved the mass immunisation of 1 million children up to the age of 3 in Delhi.

In 1995, this programme was launched nationwide leading to 88 million children being immunised.

He later became the state Minister of Education in 1996.

In 1997, the Delhi Prohibition of Smoking and Non-Smokers Health Protection Act was passed in the Delhi assembly which was one of the first anti-tobacco laws implemented by any state government.

The act applied across the NCT of Delhi.

It prohibited smoking in places of public work or use for example hospitals, restaurants, and educational institutions and in public service vehicles.

It also prohibited the sale of smoking substances such as tobacco and beedis to anyone below the age of eighteen.

Smoking products could not also be sold or stored within 100 metres of any educational institution.

Under the provisions of the act, fines would be applied to anyone who contravened the law and they could potentially be ejected from places of public use by the police.

He has been re-elected from the same constituency in the 1998, 2003, 2008 and 2013 elections.

On 23 October 2013, Vardhan was named the Chief Minister candidate for Delhi Assembly elections by the BJP.

After the 2013 elections, BJP emerged as the single largest party winning 31 out of the 70 seats in the Fifth Legislative Assembly of Delhi.

However, they fell short of an absolute majority so were unable to form the government.

Vardhan contested the Chandni Chowk seat in Delhi where he defeated the incumbent Union Minister of Law and Justice, Kapil Sibal of the Indian National Congress.

He was elected as MP of Chandni Chowk in 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

On 28 March 2014, India was declared polio-free by the WHO, as there had been no reported cases for three years.

He was also appointed in the first Narendra Modi government as Minister of Health and Family Welfare on 26 May 2014.

He represents Chandni Chowk in Delhi as a Member of Parliament in the 17th Lok Sabha.

In May 2017, he was given the additional charge of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change following the death of Minister Anil Madhav Dave.

Vardhan again contested the Chandni Chowk seat in Delhi where he defeated Congress candidate Jai Parkash Aggarwal by a margin of 2,28,145 votes.

While he received 52.94% votes, runner-up Aggarwal polled 29.67% votes.

He had served as the Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Minister of Science and Technology and Minister of Earth Sciences in the BJP-led NDA government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from 30 May 2019 to 7 July 2021.

He was again elected as MP in 2019 Lok Sabha elections..

Harsh Vardhan was born in Delhi to Om Prakash Goel and Sneh Lata Goel.

On 30 May 2019, Vardhan was sworn in as a cabinet minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's second term government.

He is put in charge of the Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Minister of Science and Technology and Minister of Earth Sciences.

Vardhan has been prominent in this role during the COVID-19 pandemic in India.

In February 2021, he endorsed an unproven "herbal cure" for COVID-19 devised by a company run by yoga guru Ramdev, prompting criticism from health experts.

In early March 2021, he declared the country was in the "endgame" of the pandemic, shortly before infections across the country rose dramatically in its second wave in April.

He was elected to the office of chairperson of executive board of the World Health Organization from May 22, 2020.

Vardhan has been prominent in the Indian government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He later resigned from his cabinet post ahead of the cabinet reshuffle in July 2021.

Dr Harsh Vardhan has quit active politics on 4 March 2024 after allegedly being denied a ticket for the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections.