King Charles briefly turned towards the man, but he quickly moved on.
New Delhi: King Charles' interaction with crowds, while majorly positive, took an unexpected turn as a man confronted him with a question about the financial burden that taxpayers have to bear for "his parade".
In a video shared on Reddit, King Charles is seen smiling and shaking hands with people, when a bearded man in the crowd asked, "While we struggle to heat our homes, we have to pay for your parade. The taxpayer pays £100 million for you and what for?"
King Charles briefly turned towards the man, but he quickly moved on as a security official stood between the two.
A Bloomberg report published in June stated that UK taxpayers will pay an additional £27.3 million ($33 million) over the next two years to plug a funding gap at the royal family and cover a drop in profit at the Crown Estate, which helps pay their expenses. This comes in the middle of the UK's worst cost-of-living crisis in years.
The Guardian reported last month that a survey of more than 2,000 UK adults revealed that skyrocketing energy prices mean almost one in four adults in the UK will not switch on the heating at all this winter.
The survey was commissioned by Liberal Democrats, who called for further commitments by UK Prime Minister Liz Truss.
"It is a national scandal that parents are having to choose between heating their homes and feeding their children," Lib Dem spokesperson for the Cabinet Office, Christine Jardine said.
While recent scandals surrounding the Windsors from Prince Andrew's links to billionaire US paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and accusations of racism from Prince Harry's mixed-race wife Meghan have been temporarily put out of mind, Charles has been caught on camera twice displaying "entitled behaviour", AFP reported.
Another misstep that was denounced as "callous" by trade unions was his announcement to lay off up to 100 staff at his former official residence, Clarence House.