'First buy Rafale to protect country... Then buy nimboo to protect Rafale'

As Defence Minister of India, Rajnath Singh, received the first unit of the French-made aircraft Rafale in France, he also received backlash for performing 'shasta puja' of the fighter jet.

Twitter went berserk roasting the minister for placing lemons under Rafale jet's wheels and coconut on its top, and emblazoning it with an 'Om' to ward off evil. Pictures of Rajnath Singh showed him taking the delivery of the first of the 36 long-awaited French-made aircraft acquired by the Indian Air Force.

Mérignac(France): Defence Minister Rajnath Singh performs 'Shastra Puja', on the Rafale combat jet officially handed over to India. pic.twitter.com/kOOzu430bK - ANI (@ANI) October 8, 2019

The minister was at Merignac airbase near Bordeaux in France where he performed the 'puja' following which the hashtag #RafalePujaPolitics was trending on Twitter, reported Scoop Whoop. Later, the minister who became a laughing stock on Twitter took part in a sortie on the same jet.

One Twitter user wrote: 'First buy Rafale to protect country... Then buy nimboo to protect Rafale'. While another Twitter user managed to dig up a clip of an old speech of Prime Minister Narendra Modi mocking people who place lemon-chilli in their vehicles to ward off evil, reported Scroll.in.

While, according to reports in India Today, the Opposition party Congress, slammed the BJP-led government for giving a religious spin to the handover ceremony. Congress leader, Sandeep Dikshit, said that instead of Rajnath Singh the Defence forces should have received the Rafale. "This is the whole problem with this government. They dramatise everything without any substantive work," Dikshit was quoted as saying in India Today.