Netizens troll Jyotiraditya Scindia for praising student who cleaned polluted river himself

New Delhi: Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia faced criticism and trolling on social media after he praised a 21-year-old Madhya Pradesh student for cleaning the polluted Ajnar River on his own.

Scindia, the Union Minister for Communications and Development of the North Eastern Region, shared a video of the student and praised his effort as an example of civic responsibility. However, users questioned why a Union minister was celebrating an individual for carrying out work that, they argued, should have been done by civic authorities.

Sharing the video, Scindia said that “no words are enough” to describe what “MP’s very own” Bittu had achieved. He said the student's effort carried “a powerful message not just for every Indian, but for the entire world: take responsibility, keep our surroundings clean and make civic sense a part of our everyday lives.”

The video shows Scindia praising the young man for cleaning the Ajnar River after finding it filled with garbage and plastic. He described the student as “the Indian we need”.

“Did he criticize the MLA, MP, MLC, no. He went into the river himself. And he cleaned the whole river in two and a half months,” Scindia said.

The student is 21-year-old Surendra Singh Choudhary, popularly known online as Bittu Tabahi. A BSc student from Biaora in Rajgarh district, Choudhary began cleaning stretches of the Ajnar River on Republic Day this year.

He reportedly spent around Rs 30,000 of his own money on basic cleaning equipment and dustbins. He worked without protective equipment and did not know how to swim when he began the effort. He later suffered skin infections and other health problems.

Videos showing the condition of the river and the difference after his cleaning efforts went viral on social media. Following this, local municipal authorities deployed machines to assist with the cleaning work.

While many users praised the student's initiative, Scindia's post also drew criticism.

One user questioned whether the minister's message effectively meant that the government had no responsibility to keep public spaces clean, writing: “So he is basically saying - govt will have zero accountability and won’t do anything.”

Another used an analogy: “You are getting tax to do it and then not doing it and glorifying someone else doing it? So I go to a restaurant. They don’t make food for me. I go to the kitchen and make food for myself. And then restaurant owner says, that’s the kind of customers we need.”

The official handle of Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) also criticised Scindia's post, saying: “A sitting Union Minister is celebrating the public not reaching out to Elected Representatives for help. What are we paying taxes for, if we have to do everything by ourselves?”

Users questioned why a student had to spend months working in polluted water before municipal authorities stepped in.