New Delhi: A BJP leader from Madhya Pradesh has offered a bizarre remedy to farmers to fight against natural calamities – chant Hanuman Chalisa, a Hindu devotional hymn.

Ramesh Saxena, a former MLA from Sehore constituency, said that he can “guarantee” that if every village chants the hymn every day, they can avoid natural disasters.

“Mera ye dava hai ki agar har gaon me ek ghante Hanuman Chalisa ka pratidin aap logon ne paath kar liya to is prakritik aapda se nipta jaa sakta hai. Isiliye punah yuva saathiyon se nivedan hai ki pratidin 1 ghanta, 5 dinon tak, Hanuman Chalisa ka paath karein (I can guarantee that if every village chants the Hanuman Chalisa for one hour every day, we can avoid natural disasters. I appeal to the youth to chant the Hanuman Chalisa for one hour over the next five days,” he told reporters.

Backing Saxena, the state’s agriculture minister Balakrishna Patidar said if someone wants to read the Hanuman Chalisa, there is nothing wrong with it. “All of this is a religious belief,” Patidar added

The comments came in the wake of the Met department’s advisory that thunderstorm and hailstorm may envelop sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, north Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, east Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha and Chhattisgarh.

On Sunday, three people died in a hailstorm that lashed parts of central Maharashtra, Marathwada and Vidarbha. The storm severely damaged grapes, cotton, green gram and wheat crops. Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Pandurang Fundkar has ordered an assessment of the damage.