Seemingly at a loss for an answer on a television debate on the News 24 channel, BJP spokesperson Ajay Alok said his phone had been disconnected (video above). “Phone got cut, or you got fact checked?” the anchor Sandeep Chaudhary said.

When Chaudhary had pointed out that the budget for laying new tracks was successively lowered in the past few years, Alok tried to put it down to the Covid-19 pandemic, during which train services were reduced.

But Chaudhary pointed out that he was referring to the figures for 2019-20, when the pandemic had barely begun and the nationwide lockdown was instituted on March 24, 2020, just a month before the end of the financial year 2019-20. Alok’s response: ‘The phone’s been disconnected.’

He did, however, rejoin the debate a little later.

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