A video went viral on Monday where Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Bihar minister Ramsurat Rai is seen giving credits to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“If you are alive today, it is because of Narendra Modi,” the minister said in a minute-long video.

In the video clip, Rai was purportedly addressing a small crowd in Muzaffarpur district, PTI reported. The video was shot last week, according to the news agency

“Look at the devastation brought by Covid in Pakistan and elsewhere,” said the Bihar revenue, land reforms and law minister. “We were saved by Modi’s vaccine and his deft handling of the economy.”

National President of the Indian Youth Congress Srinivas BV took a dig at the prime minister, asking if the citizens of the country need to pay Goods and Services Tax for this as well.

Rai had triggered a row in June during the anti-Agnipath protests in the country by calling the demonstrators “aatanki (terrorists)”, PTI reported.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) had targeted the BJP-led Centre after thousands of men burnt train coaches, damaged public property and ransacked offices in the state. The two parties are coalition allies in Bihar.

The protestors were demanding permanent recruitment under the regular process as well as pension and other retirement benefits that are not a part of the Centre’s Agnipath scheme.

In Bihar alone, 60 train coaches were burnt and property worth about Rs 700 crore had been damaged since June 15. The Bihar Police had arrested 805 persons and filed 148 first information reports in connection with the protests.