The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president, Lalu Prasad Yadav, has stated that urine used to be an effective anti-septic in an emergency situation in the past.

A report in Deccan Herald states that he made this statement when he was at the 'Diverse disease and simplicity of homoeopathy doctors' seminar organised by the Homoeopathy Science Congress in Patna.

Lalu reportedly said, “Earlier, during our childhood days, whenever we used to sustain injuries, we would apply urine, which worked as anti-septic. Now people use Dettol, and some of them now use it (Dettol) to wash their hands. This is the only progress we have made.” The audience is said to have responded with laughter.

Later, endorsing the benefits of homeopathy, Lalu said that allopathy has side effects, but homeopathy does not.

He added that he was filling in for his son Tej Pratap, the state Health Minister, as he was busy and could not attend the homoeopathy doctors’ meet.

Responding to recent criticism of him acting like a 'proxy' for his son, Lalu clarified that he had gone to inspect the IGIMS hospital as it was was built when he was Bihar CM. “I just wanted to survey how the hospital was functioning nowadays,” the report quotes him as saying.