No AC, just onion: Scindia’s heatwave tip gets roasted online

As large parts of India sweat it out in a sweltering heatwave and the country is designated as one of the world's hottest zones, Union minister Jyotiradiya Scindia has advised people to carry an onion to beat the heat.

He himself never uses AC at home or in his car, he claimed, adding that his ‘Chambal skin’ was enough to withstand the heat with a little help from... an onion. Indeed, he took out said vegetable from the pocket of his kurta with a flourish and showed it off with evident pride to his audience at Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh, which applauded him dutifully.

A video shared by verified X user Veena Jain soon went viral and reactions were savage. A large number of photographs of Scindia attending meetings with several ACs visible in conference rooms soon surfaced online. Photographs of the luxurious Scindia palace with 400 rooms in Gwalior also surfaced online and people ridiculed the minister for making what is patently a false claim.

The episode also reminded some people of what Prime Minister Narendra Modi had claimed about his glowing skin, confiding that it was sweat and perspiration that made his skin glisten.

There was also outrage. “Imagine a Union minister of India, in 2026, telling a heatwave-battered nation to stuff onions in their pockets. Not a cooling centre. Not a heatwave action plan. Not climate policy. An onion. Jyotiraditya Scindia flies in government aircraft, lives in a bungalow in Lutyens’ Delhi, and has forgotten what 51°C feels like for a labourer, a farmer, a street vendor; people with no ‘Chambal skin,’ just cracked skin from surviving a government that never planned ahead…

"BJP’s own 2024 manifesto barely mentioned ‘climate change.’ Not a single measurable heatwave relief goal. And their minister’s solution is medieval folklore. This is what happens when positions of power go to people who have stopped feeling the ground beneath their feet. Wake up, India. Onion is not a heat action plan. It’s an insult dressed as advice,” was one of the more savage reactions.

Reports suggested that at the event in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday, 26 April, Scindia, who claimed to avoid car AC and boasted of his ‘Chambal skin’, promoted the traditional Ayurvedic remedy amid a brutal heatwave. Critics mocked it as unscientific folklore, pointing to his air-conditioned Jai Vilas Palace and luxury cars, while experts noted that there is no evidence to suggest onions cool the body — though raw onions might help in hydration if eaten.

As the temperature rises, public discourse is all about power outages, the high cost of both ACs and electricity, India’s low AC access in homes, and the acute shortage of cooling infrastructure in the country. The Union minister also invited trolls by boasting that while he may look "a little young", his soul is "very old".

“He is our Union minister. India is beyond repair,” despaired one, while another felt the leader was mocking people. “The netas of our country have decided to treat people as mindless robots on purpose. It's by design. You’re on your own. This is worse than Sudha Murty saying she is middle class,” raged a handle on X, while another read, “only in India will people sitting at the top of the pyramid look at 50-degree heat and decide the real solution is not affordable cooling, better housing, reliable electricity or cheaper ACs, but onion in pocket and ‘Chambal skin’.”

“The same people who would never accept their own children sleeping in oven-like rooms will give gyan to the public about toughness, tradition and Ayurveda. This glorification of suffering and poverty is honestly shameless. India should be trying to make ACs as normal as ceiling fans, not glorifying heat and suffering as some civilisational virtue,” was the consensus.

A journalist based in New Delhi wondered in mock horror how reporters covering the ministry or writing the minister’s profile missed writing about Scindia shunning the AC. Other Union ministers too would follow Scindia’s advice, he hoped.