Minister’s adverse remarks in Rajasthan Assembly on right to health spark controversy

Rajasthan Health Minister Gajendra Singh Khimsar’s adverse remarks on the Right to Health Act in the State Assembly on Thursday (February 12, 2026) sparked a controversy and led to a ruckus in the House. Health rights groups and veteran Congress leader Ashok Gehlot also condemned the Minister’s statement.

The Right to Health Act was legislated in 2023 before the previous Congress government’s term ended, making Rajasthan the first State to give a statutory status to health care as a right. The rules under the Act could not be framed because of the imposition of the model code of conduct ahead of the Assembly election.

Speaking during the Question Hour, Mr. Khimsar said the then Congress regime had enacted the law ahead of polls to “draw political mileage” and added that Ayushman Bharat and the Chief Minister’s Ayushman Aarogya Yojana were operative in the State to cater to all needs of medical care for the patients.

“What is the need for a law on the right to health?” Mr. Khimsar asked, leading to objection by the Opposition Congress MLAs, who raised slogans and trooped to the well of the House. Amid the stormy scenes, Congress members staged a walkout in protest against the dissatisfactory reply by the Minister and the hints of scrapping the legislation.

The issue figured in the Question Hour when Congress MLA from Bundi, Harimohan Sharma, wanted to know the progress in framing of rules under the Act and the related aspects. Leader of Opposition Tika Ram Jully asked why the rules were not being framed and whether the State government wanted to implement the law.

As the matter was not resolved amid pandemonium in the House and the next question on the list was called, the issue spilt out of the Assembly. Former Chief Minister Gehlot condemned Mr. Khimsar’s remarks and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of surrendering before the private medical lobby.

“The Minister’s statement that there is no need for the right to health amounts to rubbing salt on the wounds of the poor and middle-class patients troubled by rising medical expenses,” Mr. Gehlot said in a post on X. He said the BJP government, which had failed to frame the rules, was now resorting to excuses.

The Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA)-Rajasthan demanded that Mr. Khimsar publicly acknowledge the “full scope and intent” of the Right to Health Act and immediately frame and notify the rules required to operationalise the law. The health rights group also asked the Minister to withdraw his statement made in the Assembly.

JSA coordinator Chhaya Pachauli said the State government should fulfil its statutory obligation, as the Act had remained largely unimplemented for three years in the absence of necessary rules. “The institutional mechanism mandated under the legislation should be strengthened, rather than weakened through misleading public statements,” Ms. Pachauli said.

The Act gives every resident of the State the right to emergency treatment care “without prepayment of requisite fee or charges” by any public health institution, health care establishment and designated health care centre. The Congress had made a promise to legislate the right to health in its manifesto for the 2018 Assembly election.

The legislation makes it mandatory for the hospitals to provide treatment in emergency cases without waiting for medico-legal formalities and give medicines and transport facilities without charging money. The Act’s implementation could do away with out-of-pocket expenditure and bring transparency and accountability within the healthcare system.