Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan | File PhotoBhopal: American roads are not good because America is rich, but America is rich because American roads are good," US president John F. Kennedy once said famously.
However, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan cannot disagree more.
"When I got down at the Washington Airport and traveled on the road, I felt the roads in Madhya Pradesh are better than the United States....I am saying this not just for the sake of saying," Chouhan told a business round-table organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum in the US capital on Wednesday.
The chief minister's claim drew ridicule from the Congress, while the ruling BJP called it an assertion of confidence.
"The chief minister must travel on the state roads to see their condition. His statement is akin to the pot calling the kettle black," leader of the opposition in the Assembly Ajay Singh said.
BJP MLA Rameshwar Sharma, however, hailed Chouhan, claiming over 1.75 lakh km of roads have been laid in the state by his government.
"People earlier thought we are a backward country. We are moving towards becoming a developed state. Over 1.75 lakh km of roads have been constructed in the state. It seems the Congress does not want the state's and the country's image to get a boost. It seems all patriots have left the Congress," Sharma, BJP MLA from Huzur, told PTI.
Sharma, seen on TV repairing a potholed road in his area this monsoon, added, "the chief minister dared to say this in front of those who are at the top (the US)."
It was a "manifestation of self-respect of a confident chief minister" focused on the development of infrastructure, while those scoffing at him were blindly accepting the supremacy of other countries, he said.
Asked why then he was seen taking part in road repair in his area, Sharma said he wanted to show people that the problem was caused due to leakage in the sewage line and not the rain.
The opposition was quick to post pictures of potholed roads in the state on social media.
State Congress chief Arun Yadav uploaded a video of potholed roads in Budhni, Chouhan's constituency, on Twitter. "Shivraj Singh-ji praising state roads in Washington but watch what is the condition in his home turf," Yadav tweeted.
"Whether the condition of Madhya Pradesh roads is better than Washington would be known only when Government of Mama (as Chouhan is often called) will come down to the road," Yadav said in another tweet.
He tagged an old picture showing the chief minister being carried by two policemen across a flooded stretch of a road.
Congress's chief whip in the Lok Sabha Jyotiraditya Scindia said Chouhan should face the truth by removing the blindfold on his eyes.
Former Union minister and senior Congress leader Kamal Nath tweeted the image of a newspaper clipping quoting a report of the road transport ministry tabled in the Rajya Sabha which said Madhya Pradesh witnessed 3,070 accidents due to potholes in 2015.
Several Twitter and Facebook users uploaded pictures of bad roads in their areas following Chouhan's claim.
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