Rajasthan minister Shambhu Singh Khetasar has landed himself in trouble after a photo of him urinating on a wall that had a poster of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje went viral on social media.
While the incident has caused major embarrassment for the BJP in a poll-bound Rajasthan, the minister has defended his action. He argued that he was forced to urinate in the open as there weren’t any toilets in the vicinity. He further asserted that urinating in the open was an ‘age-old tradition’ and there was nothing wrong in him peeing on the wall.
Khetasar’s actions and subsequent defence comes at a time when the state has declared 27 out of 33 districts open-defecation free. Khetasar act directly contradicts what Modi government has been trying to propagate through its flagship programme Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). However, Khetasar was quick to comment that urinating in the open does not contribute to uncleanliness and therefore it did not flout SBM guidelines.
Interestingly, the wall on which the minister urinated was near the BJP election rally that is claimed to have over 2.5 lakh people in attendance. It doesn’t sound right when the minister said there wasn’t any urinal for ‘kilometres at a stretch’.
Also, the minister doesn’t realise that such actions by people in power have a negative impact on people. If people see their elected leader urinating in the open, then they’ll justify their such actions.