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Former Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal has once again targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the central government over the issue of E-20 petrol. Kejriwal has been raising questions about the E-20 petrol policy for the past few days, and on Monday, he took a dig at the government through a joke on social media. In his statement, Kejriwal questioned the central government’s policy, raising the issue of the potential impact of E-20 petrol on vehicles and the increased financial burden on ordinary people. He sarcastically stated that the government’s policies could now impact both people’s pockets and vehicles.

This time, he shared a video on the social media platform X and made his point in a sarcastic tone. Referring to a joke in the video, Kejriwal said that this example can illustrate how E-20 petrol is being implemented in the country. He explained that in a fictitious competition, police teams representing then-US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were tasked with finding a lion released into the wild. In the joke, Trump’s police find the lion within 24 hours, while Putin’s police find it within an hour. Modi’s police are then dispatched, but they don’t return for several days. Later, when people go searching for them in the wild, the police allegedly capture a dog and try to force it to confess that it is a lion.

After criticizing the E-20 policy through a joke, Kejriwal alleged that the government is attempting to suppress critical voices on this issue. He said, “This is the state Modi has left the entire country in today. They are beating 1.4 billion people and telling them to say E-20 is right. Anyone who speaks out against E-20 has their page taken down, their videos deleted, their accounts blocked, and FIRs filed. They use hooliganism against them and harass them in various ways. How will you suppress these 1.4 billion people, Modi?” Kejriwal claimed that the public has many questions about E-20 petrol, and the government should answer them. He said that questioning any policy is part of a democratic system, and instead of suppressing critical opinions, the government should openly discuss it.

Kejriwal claimed that the central government implemented the E-20 blended petrol program under pressure from US President Donald Trump. He alleged that the purpose of this policy is to pave the way for large-scale ethanol imports from the US. However, he has not publicly presented any official documents or evidence to support this claim. The AAP chief also alleged that the government hastily implemented the E-20 policy without upgrading the necessary infrastructure and adapting existing vehicles to more ethanol-blended fuel. According to him, this could cause technical and financial difficulties for vehicle owners. Kejriwal stated that there are a large number of vehicles in the country that were not originally designed for E-20 fuel. Therefore, the government should have first provided adequate time and resources to the automobile industry, the fuel supply system, and consumers.

Kejriwal claimed that the central government has failed to withstand pressure from the Donald Trump-led US government. According to him, the US is the world’s largest ethanol producer, but the ethanol produced there is not being fully consumed. Consequently, the US is attempting to increase demand for ethanol in large markets like India. The AAP chief alleged that this is precisely why India is being pressured to implement the E-20 policy and import large quantities of ethanol from the US. He claimed that India imported about one billion liters of ethanol from the US last year, while this figure could reach five billion liters this year.

Kejriwal said that the real objective of the E-20 policy is to create a new market for American ethanol. He alleged that the government is not providing complete information to the public about the implications of this policy and is implementing it hastily. He also said that even in the US, E-20 fuel has not been implemented nationwide and fuel with low ethanol blends is still used there on a large scale. In such a situation, it is natural to question the decision to implement E-20 on a large scale in India.