Worker washes MP’s feet, drinks water

BJP’s Dubey defends act after post goes viral

Parliamentarian faces flak for sharing pictures of incident on Facebook with words of praise |

ABharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentarian from Jharkhand, Nishikant Dubey, has come under fire after he allowed a party worker to wash his feet and drink the water.

Dubey represents the Godda seat in the Lok Sabha.

The incident took place during a foundation-laying ceremony of a bridge at Kanhwara village under his constituency on Sunday.

Reports said after the parliamentarian reached the venue and grabbed his seat at the dais, party worker Pawan Shah came to him with a brass plate full of water and asked him to stand up from his seat.

Witnesses said the moment Dubey stood up, the party worker put his feet in the brass plate, scrubbed them for a while and them wiped them with a cloth.

The party worker then drank a handful of the water used to clean his feet. The parliamentarian didn’t make an attempt to stop him, and later shared pictures of the incident on Facebook with words of praise.

The incident came to light after the post went viral on social media and people reacted angrily to his “feudal outlook”.

However, the parliamentarian defended it saying it was not unusual in Indian culture, claiming even deity Krishna did the same in the Hindu text Mahabharata by washing the feet of his childhood friend Sudama.

“If a party worker washes the feet out of happiness, what is amusing in it? Washing the feet of the guests is a customary practice in Jharkhand,” Dubey said. He later deleted the posts after he was slammed on social media.

In a video, Dubey is seen happily putting his feet in the water and then allowing the worker to wash it.

Not humane

The Congress party condemned the incident and sought action against the parliamentarian. “Has the arrogance of BJP leaders reached such a zenith that now they want their workers and common people to wash their feet and drink that water? Is it even humane in the 21st century?” Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told the media yesterday.

The Congress leader said if Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP president Amit Shah don’t take action against Dubey, it would prove that he had the support of the top party leadership.

Dubey kicked up another controversy earlier when he had announced he would pay the legal expenses of four men in Jharkhand accused of lynching two Muslim villagers on the suspicion of cattle theft.