Ahmedabad: World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in Gujarat this week to attend several conventions on health and medicine and Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed him and accorded him a Gujarati name ‘Tulsi bhai’.
Reacting to the newfound name, the WHO chief said he like being called by a name that makes him a ‘pucca Gujarati’. “I like the name Tulsi Bhai because the ‘Tulsi’is a medicinal plant. I just planted Tulsi here in the Wellness Centre. I’m really happy to do that because it has many benefits,” he said after visiting a health and wellness centre in Gandhinagar.
Earlier, PM Modi shared a post on X (formerly Twitter) of Union AYUSH ministry where the WHO chief was shown taking part in a dandiya dance at a venue. “My good friend Tulsi Bhai is clearly well prepared for Navratri! Welcome to India, @DrTedros!” he said.
The name was first given to him the Prime Minister at the Global AYUSH Investment and Innovation Summit last year, where he said that Ghebreyesus had asked him for a name after he became a ‘pucca Gujarati’. “Tedros is a good friend of mine. He always told me Indian teachers taught me and I am here because of them. Today he told me – ‘I have become a pucca Gujarati. Have you decided a name for me?’ So I will call him Tulsi bhai as a Gujarati,” PM Modi said last year.
The WHO chief will take part in the ministerial meeting on ending TB, WHO Traditional Medicine Global Summit and G20 health ministers’ meeting.
