A ceremony to celebrate Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s birth anniversary in Madhya Pradesh’s Satna district witnessed chaos on Friday after BJP MP Ganesh Singh slapped a municipal crane operator in full public view. A video of the incident surfaced online.
The incident took place at Semriya Chowk, near the Dr BR Ambedkar statue, during the ‘Run for Unity’ event organised to mark National Unity Day.
Eyewitnesses said that the MP was aboard a hydraulic crane that he was using to garland the statue of Dr Ambedkar when the machine abruptly jolted and stopped mid-air, leaving him suspended for several seconds.
Upon safely descending, Singh got very angry at the crane operator, who was identified as Ganesh Kushwaha. Singh slapped him in front of BJP workers, police officers and bystanders.
The shocking moment, which was captured on camera, went viral within hours and drew sharp criticism across social media platforms.
The viral video shows the MP stepping out of the hydraulic lift, yelling at the operator, and then slapping him as officials and police personnel stood by, visibly taken aback.
Eyewitnesses later clarified that the brief malfunction was due to a minor technical fault. “The operator was only doing his job. The sudden jerk was mechanical. But the MP lost his temper,” said a municipal worker present at the site.
In an attempt to justify the act, the MP’s representative Neeta Soni defended Singh in a social media post, writing, “The MP merely slapped him. His arms and legs should have been broken. If he had fallen from that height, who would have taken responsibility?”
The Congress slammed the incident as a blatant abuse of power. Party spokesperson Abhinav Baraulia said, “This is the real face of the BJP where leaders believe they own the public servants and the public alike.”
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