Madhya Pradesh Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia has stirred a controversy after a video has gone viral which shows him throwing away a coconut which was given to him by his party workers.
The incident was reported by News Tak (which is a digital channel of India Today group), in form of a YouTube video:
As seen in the above report, Scindia was travelling from Khajuraho to Rewa in Madhya Pradesh. While he was passing through the town of Panna, his car was stopped by a few congress workers who proceeded to welcome him by giving him a coconut.
Scindia accepted the coconut but shockingly while he was exiting the city, threw it away. As per the report, this act was then noticed by an on-duty policeman who proceeded to hide the coconut between his feet, to hide it from people.
A Jansatta report which too carried this video claims that the video has since then gone viral on social media, with the critics calling this act of Scindia an insult to the Congress workers.
Incidentally, there might be another more unfortunate angle to the matter as one can clearly see in the video that the coconut seems coated in Sindoor, which indicates that it might have been part of a Pooja Prasad (offering to god during Puja):
If it is indeed true that the coconut was first part of a Prasad before being given to Scindia, then he might have insulted not only his party workers but also the Hindu religion, with his act.
BJP MP and Union Minister of State Giriraj Singh, too called it an insult to Hindu gods:
भगवान का तिरस्कार
ये कांग्रेस है ..ये हिन्दू तो छोड़िए …इनसे हिंदुत्व का चोला भी नहीं थोड़ी देर बर्दाश्त नहीं होता ।देखे VIDEO: प्रसाद में दिये एक नारियल से फँस गए ज्योतिरादित्य सिंधिया, चलती कार से सड़क पर फेंका नारियल https://t.co/w0bpl8ZngP
— Giriraj Singh (@girirajsinghbjp) July 14, 2018
Following the criticism, it remains to be seen whether Scindia or his self-styled Janeudhari President Rahul Gandhi would now apologise for this incident.