Video of Maharashtra minister urinating in open goes viral

In a major embarrassment to the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in Maharashtra and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, a video of a senior minister  urinating in open has gone viral on social media.

The video of Water Conservation Minister Ram Shinde of the BJP went viral on Sunday. The incident purportedly took place on the Solapur-Barshi Road when the minister was travelling in a car.

"I was touring Maharashtra to oversee the implementation of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. I was not keeping as I had a fever. I could not find a toilet and therefore had to relieve myself in the open," said Shinde.  

Several political parties, including the NCP and the Aam Aadmi Party,    took a dig at Shinde, the Fadnavis-led government and the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said Shinde's action shows that the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has failed.

"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 was quoted as saying.

"Why arrest @RightToPee activists @CMOMaharashtra?  They are fighting for your own Minister Ram Shinde, who was relieving himself in public. Btw will your officers garland and shame him like they do to poor women," AAP spokesperson Preeti Sharma Menon tweeted.