Former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has pulled up Assam Minister for Education, Health & Finance Himanta Biswa Sarma for stating that only the sins committed in the previous birth(s) by a person were responsible for him/her getting affected by dreaded diseases such as cancer at a very young age.

Sarma, a Congress leader who joined the BJP in 2015, won last year’s Assembly polls in Assam and was made a Minister in the Cabinet headed by chief-minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who heads the first-ever BJP Govt. in the State.  Sarma's controversial remarks came during his speech at a function in Guwahati on Friday where appointment orders to newly-recruited teachers were given away.

"As per destiny, we all have to undergo the benefits/ills of our activities.  We have seen many getting dreaded diseases such as cancer and other killer-diseases.  This is nothing but the effects of the sins committed by them in their previous birth(s); it’s a punishment meted out to them by the Almighty.   All of us are bound by it and are helpless in this regard," Sarma said.

Controversy has erupted with the remarks of a Minister holding the Health portfolio blaming 'sins' and 'Almighty' for terminal illnesses.  Taking on Sarma on his Twitter account, P. Chidambaram condemned Sarma’s remarks and said that ‘This is what switching parties does to a person!’, taking a dig at Sarma defecting to the BJP a couple of years back.