Amit Shah was discharged from AIIMS on Thursday, five days after he was re-admitted for check-up following recovery from Covid-19.

Shah, 55, has been hospitalised thrice in the past six weeks. The government has not offered any specific details or regular updates on his health other than Shah himself tweeting about him testing positive for Covid.

The government has no right to discuss in public the medical details of Citizen Shah. But Shah is also the Union home minister and the second most powerful person in the country for all practical purposes.

Medical status has always been a sensitive subject in India, if not the entire sub-continent, although modern democracies have evolved precedents that let citizens know whether those who run the governments -– and take decisions that influence their lives – are in the right frame of mind and body to discharge their responsibilities.

Public figures often cite the law to point out that there is no binding rule that compels them to reveal the state of their health. Indian law requires politicians to declare only their assets for contesting polls.

However, in the US, the President makes public his annual medical check-up report, although no law requires the President or the presidential candidates to make public medical records or information. The UK also follows a similar protocol.

Former US President Barack Obama released reports of his physical examinations periodically throughout his presidency and also during his campaign, although he was not legally required to do so.

According to a 2018 poll, 80 per cent of voters in the US said a candidate’s health was important for them and many said the public deserved a sense of a candidate’s physical and mental fitness.

Last month Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had announced his resignation because of ill-health and told the nation about his medical condition.

A former CBI director said: “I think politicians and ministers should have a moral responsibility to disclose their medical condition so that the people are reassured that nothing impairs the elected representative’s ability to serve.”

A retired bureaucrat added: “Shah is the second-in-command and a very powerful minister in the government. He holds a very important portfolio and is in charge of the country’s internal security.

Shah is known to be diabetic and hypertensive. In September 2019, he underwent minor surgery at a private hospital in Ahmedabad for the removal of lipoma, or a fatty lump, at the back of his neck.

Shah was admitted to AIIMS on Saturday night (September 12) for a “routine check-up”, nearly two weeks after he was discharged from hospital.

In a statement on September 13, the hospital said Shah was admitted for a “complete medical check-up before Parliament session for 1-2 days”.