Since his Bharat Jodo Yatra a couple of years back, Rahul Gandhi's choice of 'winter clothes' has been a matter of great discussion. This year too, we saw the Indian National Congress leader all over our Television screens and on social media in just a white T-shirt during the Delhi election campaign and parliament sessions in the winter months. Apart from the occasional half jacket which he wore during the night visits to homeless shelters in Delhi, he was almost always seen wearing just the white T-shirt.

Describing why he wears it, in a video posted on X from June 2024, he said, "I am often asked why I always wear a 'white T-shirt' - this T-shirt symbolizes transparency, solidity and simplicity for me." The video has 1.1 million views and 58 thousand likes. He even has a campaign by the hashtag #WhiteTshirtArmy for people to wear his attire.

Rahul Gandhi has even posted about it on his YouTube channel, and in the video titled The mystery of White T-Shirt, he can be heard repeating the same statement of "transparency, and simplicity." He is also seen saying, "I don't care much about clothes." The video has got 2 lakh 78 thousand views and 33 thousand likes.

Rahul Gandhi might not care much about his clothes, but should you? For this First Check spoke to two experts.

Dr Ramesh Bijlani, former professor of Physiology at AIIMS, New Delhi said that people should try to keep themselves warm during winters wearing warmer clothes, to help maintain their body temperature.

"Our bodies in general are more suited to handle warm and hot temperatures than they are with colder temperatures. Now, whether one wears clothes according to the feeling of experiencing cold depends on each individual, but in general people should keep themselves warm by wearing full clothes during the winter months, this is most important when the weather changes between December and January," he said.

"Some parts of the body need to covered, which are crucial, mainly the head, ears, neck and chest. These are parts which people usually neglect, they would cover the lower part of their body but the head is exposed. Covering the head is important to maintain the body temperature without letting it drop. The ears are equally important, and the chest and throat are areas where infections start, so it is necessary to keep them covered and protected too," he said.

Dr Pooja Khosla, specialist with 20+ years of experience in Internal Medicine with the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi said that it was important to cover up as otherwise your body is left weak, and vulnerable to infections.

"Covering up during winters is of utmost importance whether one is physically fit or not, regular cold exposure leaves the body weak and vulnerable to infections. The best way to avoid falling sick during wintertime in particular is to keep oneself warm by wearing appropriate clothes. How cold affects the body is, it reduces metabolism, which disrupts our hormonal system, this can lead to numerous issues, starting with headaches, body pain, nausea, indigestion and other illnesses," she explained.

First Check concludes that, by all means go ahead and don a white t-shirt if you so wish but never forget to cover up with sweaters and jackets, in particular to cover one's head, ears, neck and chest.

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