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Madhya Pradesh: Just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged residents to minimize fuel usage and avoid unnecessary travel, a BJP official in Madhya Pradesh made headlines for traveling in a convoy of roughly 50 vehicles.

Saubhagya Singh Thakur, who was recently named chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Textbook Corporation, traveled from Ujjain to Bhopal in a convoy of SUVs and support vehicles as he prepared to take over his new position.

Videos of the convoy soon spread online. Several garland-covered SUVs were seen driving down the highway, with fans greeting Thakur at various spots along the road. The repeated halts reportedly slowed traffic and caused difficulties to commuters at different points on the route.

PM Modi had appealed for restraint just two days earlier

The convoy surfaced just two days after Prime Minister Modi issued a public appeal to residents to reduce their consumption of petrol and diesel in light of the ongoing Iran crisis and concerns about its potential impact on India's economy.

On Sunday, the Prime Minister addressed a BJP rally in Telangana, urging people to use public transportation, metro services, carpooling, and electric automobiles instead of wasting fuel.

“We got into work-from-home, virtual meetings and video conferencing during COVID-19. "The need of the hour is to resume those methods," PM Modi added, urging economic restraint and foreign exchange conservation.

The Prime Minister had also advised citizens to postpone unnecessary foreign trips and discretionary spending, including gold purchases. He also supported the usage of Swadeshi products and promoted natural farming.

Against that backdrop, the BJP leader’s large convoy created criticism and questions online over whether the Prime Minister’s appeal was being implemented by leaders within the party itself.

Political fight erupts as Congress attacks BJP

The BJP and Congress clashed over Modi's remarks, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accusing the government of burdening ordinary citizens.

“Yesterday, Modi Ji called upon the public to make sacrifices... These are not words of counsel; they are evidence of failure,” Rahul Gandhi said in a post on X. 

The BJP strongly refuted the criticism, accusing the Congress of manipulating a global crisis. Sudhanshu Trivedi, the BJP's national spokesperson, supported the Prime Minister's request, noting that India imports approximately 85% of its energy. He explained that the government's message intended to shield the country from global economic shocks while also maintaining energy security.

“Whatever the prime minister said was the duty of the government,” Trivedi said, comparing the appeal to precautionary advisories issued during natural disasters.

BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya also backed Modi’s statement, saying the Prime Minister had only urged citizens to make “conscious choices in the national interest” by conserving energy and promoting self-reliance.