Maharashtra water minister pees by roadside, rivals say Swachh Bharat has failed

Source: Twitter

A minister in the Devendra Fadnavis government has caused embarrassment to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as he was caught urinating by roadside. The video of the minister peeing by roadside went viral on social media, providing ammunition to the opposition parties to target the state as well as the central governments.

While Maharashtra Water Conservation Minister Ram Shinde said that he was feeling ill, opposition parties such as the National Congress Party (NCP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) termed it as a failure for the Swachh Bharat campaign of the Narendra Modi government.

Shinde said that he urinated in the open as he was feeling ill after spending nearly a month touring the state for the government's flagship Jalyukta Shivar scheme.

"I have been travelling continuously from the last one month taking review of the Jalyukta Shivar scheme. Continuous travelling in high temperatures and dust made me ill. I was suffering from fever today and when I couldn't find a toilet while travelling, I had to relieve myself in the open," Shinde said.

The NCP was quick to react on the issue, asking how Prime Minister Narendra Modi can ask “people to follow discipline when his own ministers are a bunch of undisciplined people”.

Asserting that the Swachh Bharat mission has failed, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said, "It is now proved that the government has been looting people in the name of Swacch Bharat cess on petrol and diesel."

"How can the Prime Minister expect people to follow discipline when his own ministers are a bunch of undisciplined people? If the minister did not find a toilet on a highway, it means the government has all along been looting people in the name of Swacch Bharat cess on fuel. The minister has proved that the whole scheme is nothing but a big failure," Malik said.

The Aam Aadmi Party also took to Twitter to target the central government and Swachh Bharat campaign over the issue. A tweet was posted by AAP Maharashtra on the issue.

महाराष्ट्राचे जलसंधारण मंत्री राम शिंदेंची उघड्यावरच लघुशंका ; मोदींच्या स्वच्छ भारत अभियानाला फासला हरताळ..!https://t.co/8IlUflScic — AAP महाराष्ट्र (@AAPMaharashtra) November 19, 2017

The incident occurred on a stretch on the Solapur-Barshi road in Maharashtra when the minister was travelling in his car.

This comes months after Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh was photographed while urinating in public. The pictures had evoked sharp reactions on social media with many targeting the Swachh Bharat campaign of the Narendra Modi government.

(With PTI Inputs)