When Haryana minister Anil Vij compared Rahul Gandhi to Nipah virus

Haryana cabinet minister Anil Vij on Tuesday made yet another controversial remark. He compared Congress chief Rahul Gandhi with the dangerous Nipah Virus which has claimed many lives across the country.

Taking to Twitter, Vij said,''Rahul Gandhi is similar to Nipah Virus. Any political party that comes in contact with him will be destroyed.''

It can be recalled that the virus has so far claimed 13 lives in Kerala.

The outbreak of the Nipah virus infection, a newly emerging zoonosis that causes severe disease in both animals and humans, is suspected to be from an unused well at Perambra in Kerala's Kozhikode district which was infested with bats.

The natural host of the virus is believed to be fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family, Pteropus genus. So far there is no vaccine against the virus which was first identified in 1998 in Kampung Sungai Nipah, Malaysia.