The 19-year-old woman alleged vulgar comments had been made about her (Representational)
Madhya Pradesh police have registered a case against four men accused of making vulgar comments about a woman who confronted Tulsiram Silawat, a former Congress leader who jumped ship to join the BJP and is now a cabinet minister.
Mr Silawat was one of 22 ex-Congress MLAs who sided with Jyotiraditya Scindia, a senior party leader of nearly two decades, and defected to the BJP. The mass resignations triggered the fall of the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in March.
The former Congress leader was at a function in Indore when the complainant, a 19-year-old woman, questioned him over loan waivers for farmers and Mr Scindia's apparent switch in positions on the subject.
In a video of the confrontation she can be heard asking Mr Silawat: "I want to ask one thing. You were in the Congress earlier and suddenly joined the BJP. You caused the collapse of a good government. How do you feel?"
Mr Silawat can heard insisting that he remained connected to the problems of the people because he was sitting among them,
The young woman presses her point home, saying: "We talk about farmers. A few days ago your (leader) Jyotiraditya Scindia tweeted that (during the tenure of the Kamal Nath government) the loans of many farmers was waived. Then suddenly he said no loan of farmers has been waived".
Loan waivers has been a contentious subject in Madhya Pradesh.
The Kamal Nath government had promised to clear farmers' loans up to Rs 50,000 for 32 lakh farmers over two phases. However, before this scheme could be carried out, his government fell.
The BJP has urged farmers who did not get waivers to file cases against the Kamal Nath government.
The young woman who confronted Tulsiram Silawat, and was abused and harassed on social media in return, had filed a case with Indore's Lasudia Police Station. The accused have been identified as Basant Panchal, Umesh Prajapati, Manoj Sharma and Pranay Kumar.