Ashneer Grover’s remark on Indore being cleanest city goes viral, Mayor threatens legal action

Former BharatPe CEO Ashneer Grover's contentious remarks about Indore city has caused quite a stir, triggering a wave of reactions from netizens and public figures alike. In the latest development, the city's mayor has stated that he plans to sue Grover for defamation due to the derogatory statements made about the city.

Ashneer Grover, former celebrity judge on the show "Shark Tank India", remarked that Indore’s position as India’s cleanest city is ‘bought’. Addressing an event in Indore, Grover is heard in the video saying, "See, there is a concept - playing to the gallery, that is, wherever you go, praise it saying I have never seen such a nice city. Now the problem with me is that for three-four years I have heard that Indore is the cleanest city...you have bought the survey. It's a simple thing."

The crowd booed Ashneer Grover after hearing of the city's accomplishment just seconds before.

Understanding the situation, Grover quickly explained, claiming that he only meant that there was a lot of construction work in Indore and that he did not mean that the city was filthy. He reminded the audience that the cleanest city ranking takes into account "not just chip packets," but also "debris".

Reacting to the video, Indore's Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava told news agency PTI, "I have seen Grover's video. His statement is an insult to the hard work of the city's people and sanitation workers for cleanliness. We will take appropriate legal action against this insult and also serve him a notice for defamation.”

Indore was adjudged India's cleanest city for the sixth time in a row, while Surat and Navi Mumbai followed it on the next two spots in the Central government's annual cleanliness survey, the results of which were announced in December last year.

The 7th edition of Swachh Survekshan was conducted to study the progress of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) and rank the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) based on various cleanliness and sanitation parameters.

The Survekshan has evolved from being an assessment of 73 cities in 2016 to covering 4,354 cities this year.

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