On Sunday, the ruling BJP and Congress lashed out at each other after a video of a Madhya Pradesh minister, Tulsiram Silawat and his supporters breaking coconuts and a priest chanting prayers in front of a tanker transporting oxygen from Gujarat went viral.
In videos that were circulated widely on social media, MP PWD minister, Tulsiram Silawat and his supporters can be seen offering prayers in front of the tanker in Indore and posing in front of the vehicle for media photographs.
MP Congress spokesperson Neelabh Shukla alleged that when the tanker, which started from Jamnagar in Gujarat reached Chandan Nagar Chowk on Saturday night, it was stopped for an hour by Silawat for puja Paath to quench their thirst for media coverage. They repeated the act when the vehicle reached a filling station.
He added that they did this “nautanki” when there is an acute shortage of oxygen in hospitals and patients are gasping for breath.
Countering the statement, Indore BJP chief Gaurav Randive said that the tanker was not stopped even for five minutes at Chandan Nagar Chowk and it was sent immediately to a filling station. “The video of us offering prayers was of the time when the tanker was being emptied at the filling station,” he claimed.