Patna: A senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and federal health minister in the Narendra Modi government has triggered a major controversy after he accused people from his home state of Bihar of crowding the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, and then announced he had directed the doctors to send them back home.

Federal Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey made these remarks while launching a health programme in Patna on Sunday evening.

He was included in the Modi cabinet in the recent cabinet reshuffle carried out only last month.

“We have this peculiar habit of visiting AIIMS in Delhi for everything. The people of Bihar tend to go there even for a small disease, thus crowding the institution. I have directed the doctors to send such patients back home even without treating them,” he was quoted as saying at the function on Sunday.

The statement drew strong protests with the opposition launching frontal attacks on the minister for making such remarks.

“The Prime Minister should sack such minister from his cabinet. How can he ask doctors not to treat patients from Bihar?” Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) vice-president shivanand Tiwari said.

The Congress termed this statement as “very shocking” and asked the minister to withdraw his statement.

The Janata Dal United (JD-U) of chief minister Nitish Kumar, which barely two months back joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form a new government in Bihar, after dumping the erstwhile ruling Grand Alliance, suggested the minister should refrain from making such statements.

“The people have every right to get treatment in health institution across the country. The minister should avoid making such statements,” JD-U spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said.

However, this is not the first time that Choube has triggered controversy.

Earlier in 2012 while he was serving as the health minister of Bihar, he had threatened to chop the hands off striking doctors.

He also passed derogatory remarks against Congress president Sonia Gandhi, terming her as “Putana”, a mythological demon woman.