An Indian minister has faced calls for his arrest after a video showed him slapping a man during a row over the quality of a road in the capital Delhi.
Parvesh Verma, Delhi's public works minister and a member of the Narendra Modi-led governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), appeared to slap a man in a video shared by an opposition party.
The incident occurred during an inspection of a newly laid road in the Tilak Nagar area of west Delhi on Sunday afternoon.
The man who was allegedly assaulted was identified as Saheb Singh, who works on social media for Jarnail Singh, a Delhi legislative assembly member from the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
In a video shared by the AAP, Mr Verma can be seen taking hold of the man's phone before appearing to slap him, and security personnel then step in to separate them.
The man had gone to the site after the Public Works Department, the city agency responsible for roads, called his team to inspect the road, Indian news agency ANI reported.
He said he pointed out sections where the surface was breaking apart, and that the minister then slapped him.
"I was recording a video when Parvesh Verma snatched my phone and raised his hand at me, which is clearly visible in the video," Mr Saheb Singh said.
He said the minister's security personnel then held his arm and grabbed him by the neck, and that BJP workers with the minister threatened to kill him.
The AAP shared the video in a post on X, translated from Hindi: "Is he a minister of the BJP government or some thug!! As soon as the corruption in Delhi government minister Parvesh Verma's road was exposed, he stooped to thuggery by slapping youths in public."
बीजेपी सरकार का मंत्री है या कोई गुंडा‼️
दिल्ली सरकार में मंत्री प्रवेश वर्मा की सड़क का भ्रष्टाचार क्या उजागर हुआ, वो युवाओं को सरेआम थप्पड़ मारकर गुंडागर्दी पर उतर आए। pic.twitter.com/ZiXvjq3oNm
Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP's national convener and a former chief minister of Delhi, demanded the minister’s arrest in a post in Hindi. He said would visit Tilak Nagar on Monday to inspect the road.
Rahul Gandhi, of the opposition Congress party, said that “this is the face of a power that no longer fears the voters”.
“These people do this because they no longer fear that an election can remove them,” he wrote in Hindi.
Mr Verma said in a video posted on X that he had gone to inspect the Vikas Puri Ring Road and alleged Mr Singh abused his family.
"When I stopped and examined the site, I saw that the work was progressing very well," he said.
"Residents told me that this road had not been built for 15 years; it was finally being constructed after a decade-and-a-half. I personally called the local MLA, Jarnail Singh, three times. I waited for him for 45 minutes. I had not called any of our own party workers to the site."
He said the confrontation began after the MLA arrived. "When one of his [Jarnail Singh's] workers started shouting abuses at my family, I reacted just as anyone would in the heat of the moment," Mr Verma said on social media.
He alleged that the MLA arrived at the site with "history-sheeter goons", meaning men with police records, and used abusive language.
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