An Indian politician Bhagwant Mann was hospitalized after drinking water from a sacred river in an attempt to show it was clean and safe.
Mann, chief minister of the Punjab region, was filmed drinking a whole glass of water from the Kali Bein, a rivulet that is considered holy to Sikhs.
Mann was trying to demonstrate the effectiveness of a 22-year project to clean up the river. While there he announced a wider project to clean up rivers and drains statewide, India Today reported.
Mann’s Aam Admi Party tweeted the footage on Sunday, writing in Punjabi about the cleaning project and the rivulet’s holy associations.
ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਦੀ ਚਰਨ ਛੋਹ ਪ੍ਰਾਪਤ ਧਰਤੀ ਸੁਲਤਾਨਪੁਰ ਲੋਧੀ ਵਿਖੇ ਪਵਿੱਤਰ ਵੇਈਂ ਦਾ ਪਾਣੀ ਪੀਂਦੇ ਹੋਏ CM @BhagwantMann ਜੀ
ਪਵਿੱਤਰ ਵੇਈਂ ਨੂੰ ਸਾਫ਼ ਕਰਨ ਦਾ ਬੀੜਾ ਰਾਜ ਸਭਾ ਮੈਂਬਰ ਸੰਤ ਸੀਚੇਵਾਲ ਜੀ ਨੇ ਚੁੱਕਿਆ ਹੋਇਆ ਹੈ pic.twitter.com/4LnU0U66wQ
— AAP Punjab (@AAPPunjab) July 17, 2022
48 hours later, Mann was hospitalized.
Though Officials denied any connection between the hospital visit and the water and claimed it was a routine checkup.
But, citing unnamed sources, Indian news site ”the Express” reported that the illness was caused by the water. Mann developed a severe stomach ache and had to be airlifted for tests at the hospital, the outlet reported.
He was discharged late on Wednesday and, according to a tweet by journalist Gagandeep Singh, was scheduled for a meeting with officials on Thursday.
The Kali Bein is considered holy because they believe that the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, bathed in it and became enlightened.
In 2000, the environmentalist Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal led a campaign to see the highly-polluted waterway cleaned up.
