Kerala is the internet for Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, it would seem.

“Came across this innovative idea on the internet a few days back on mentioning week days in bed sheets and immediately ordered its implementation. We’ve introduced sheets with week days and colours mentioned so the same sheet is not repeated,” the Assam chief minister wrote on his on X (Twitter before Elon Musk took over) handle on Wednesday.

Following the chief minister’s cue, the idea was implemented in the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital and the Naibari Medical College and Hospital. In his post made on Wednesday, the Assam chief minister – busy campaigning in Delhi – had sought the opinion of the authorities in both these hospitals.

What Sarma did not mention is that the day name-printed bedsheets from Kerala were doing the rounds of the internet for over 10 days.

The reason behind the CPM-led Left Democratic Front’s decision to introduce the step in Kerala was to help the nursing and housekeeping staff at the government hospitals keep track of the sheets and replace these, ensuring the patients get clean linen during every day of their stay at the hospital, and maintaining hygiene.

The internet, however, is a brutal place as Sarma found out.

Replying to the Assam CM’s post, one user wrote; “This idea hails from Kerala. The bedsheets in government hospitals (of Kerala) have the day printed on them to ensure they are changed daily.”

Author Mini Nair too called out the Assam chief minister. “Dude is shy about admitting that he got this idea from Kerala government hospitals,” she wrote to Sarma.

Both the lawyer and the author are partially correct.

Tamil Nadu health minister Ma Subramanyam had in November 2023 rolled out a similar initiative to ensure clean linen for every hospital bed, which was started with the Chennai-based Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.

The colour scheme introduced by the Tamil Nadu health department was: pink on Mondays, blue on Tuesdays, maroon on Wednesdays, violet on Thursdays, green on Fridays and light blue for the weekend. In 2024, a similar initiative was taken at Madurai’s Government Rajaji hospital.

Before these two states, the Nashik civil hospital had introduced a similar scheme in August 2019 for its special newborn care unit (SNCU).

On Mondays, the SNCU had green sheets, followed by blue on Tuesdays and different colours for different days. The step was taken to ensure proper washing and sterilisation of the sheets for the new-born babies. Each cubicle at the SNCU was provided with separate mops and buckets.