Jaipur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s X post claiming he planted a khejri tree in Pachpadra on Saturday triggered a political row after Nagaur MP and Rashtriya Loktantrik Party chief Hanuman Beniwal claiming the sapling was actually a peepal tree.Beniwal took a swipe at Modi and Rajasthan chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma in a post on X. “I want to ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi that today (Saturday) you came to Pachpadra in Rajasthan and planted a tree. Has your govt invented a new variety of khejri, or has Rajasthan CM Bhajan Lal Sharma made you plant a peepal and called it khejri?” he asked.The PM posted that environmental protection was everyone’s responsibility and said he had the privilege of planting a khejri tree in Pachpadra, under the govt’s flagship ‘Ek ped Ma ke naam’ campaign. The post carried photographs of Modi and Rajasthan Governor Haribhau Bagde planting a sapling, with Union petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri looking on.The Prime Minister’s post was later deleted, drawing further criticism from the Opposition.After the post was deleted, Congress chimed in too. AICC communications chief Jairam Ramesh responded to Beniwal’s post with a Hindi couplet suggesting that even if the BJP leadership was obfuscating the truth about the sapling, everyone who saw the photos of the PM knew what it was.
