The topic of ethanol blended petrol or E20 fuel in India, and especially the role of Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari in all this, is among the most debated ones over the past few weeks.
Almost every other day, the digital news space is full of experts talking about whether
- ethanol blended fuel is really as beneficial as the government is touting to be,
- answering questions about how much water producing it requires and if India, a water-scarce country, can really afford to spend so much to produce ethanol,
- the fact that even with this, petrol prices are not coming down for the average citizen,
- and the biggest question of them all: the role of Gadkari in this project and the allegations of his son owning an ethanol company and how ethical that is.
Recently, Gadkari sat down for an interview with ABP News, and the questions raised, along with his response to them, have again raised a lot of chatter about whether this project is really for the benefit of the citizens of the country or for some other reason that is not being clearly told.
What Happened In The ABP News Interview?
ABP News journalist Megha Prasad sat down with Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari for an interview. The interview, held in a private jet and livestreamed on YouTube on July 13, 2026, was centred around the E20 ethanol-blended petrol controversy.
Prasad raised questions about: whether E20 genuinely reduces mileage, why petrol prices haven’t dropped despite ethanol being cheaper to produce, complaints from vehicle owners about engine and fuel-pump damage, an ARAI report that critics allege was kept under wraps, road conditions on highways under Gadkari’s own ministry, and. most explosively, allegations connecting Gadkari’s family business to the ethanol industry that has expanded rapidly under his own policy push.
Here we take a look at some of the toughest questions the interviewer raised to Gadkari, along with what he responded with.
Ethanol Blended Petrol Decreases Mileage
The first question raised by Megha Prasad to Nitin Gadkari was about why his acceptance of ethanol-blended petrol affecting mileage came only last week, when others accepted it, and an official report was leaked.
Prasad said, “Last week, for the first time, you acknowledged that ethanol-blended petrol affects mileage. If you accepted this fact last week, so people are now asking: why didn’t you admit this earlier? They say you accepted it only after Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri acknowledged it and after an ARAI report suggesting lower mileage was leaked. Why so?”
To this, Gadkari said, “First of all, what you’re saying isn’t correct. This is a technical issue. You cannot isolate one sentence from what I said and draw conclusions. That’s not fair. Let me explain. The calorific value of ethanol is different from that of petrol. Every fuel has a different calorific value. However, when you drive in city traffic, you’re constantly changing gears. Under those conditions, the average mileage with ethanol-blended fuel and petrol is almost the same. On highways, where you’re driving continuously at higher speeds, the mileage may reduce slightly. That is true.”
He added, “Overall, yes, ethanol has a lower calorific value than petrol, so there is naturally some difference between the two.”
#WATCH | पेट्रोल में एथेनॉल की मिलावट से इंजन की माइलेज पर क्या असर होगा ? सुनिए क्या बोले नितिन गडकरी@MeghaSPrasad | @nitin_gadkarihttps://t.co/smwhXUROiK#EthanolBlending #E20 #Petrol #Mileage #AutoNews #Fuel #NitinGadkari #ABPNews pic.twitter.com/by8O15i0U1
— ABP News (@ABPNews) July 13, 2026
Prasad attempted to repeat the question, asking for a direct answer from the Union Minister on whether E20 blended petrol will result in mileage decrease. She then gave her personal experience as well, where her petrol-based Honda City, which was bought in 2023 and thus E-20 compliant, used to average 11-12 km/l in city driving but was now down to around 7 km/l, despite identical traffic and routes.
To this, Gadkari placed a counter-question, asking her how exactly she had measured that average and said, “Before drawing conclusions, get the vehicle inspected properly. If it’s under warranty, take it to the authorised dealer. They have diagnostic machines that accurately measure fuel efficiency. Don’t rely only on manual calculations.”
When Prasad stressed that “And if it turns out that my mileage has dropped because of the fuel, what will you do?” Gadkari still refused to answer the question directly, though, saying, “First let that be proven. Why are you declaring the verdict before the investigation? If there’s evidence, there are legal remedies. You can even file a case with the consumer court if necessary.”
When Prasad added that Gadkari himself had said that if anyone facing problems should come to him, and that people were posting online about their vehicles breaking down because of ethanol, Gadkari said that he “cannot comment on individual claims without verification” and instead raised how Maruti Suzuki had “officially stated that they have not received complaints of vehicle failures caused by ethanol fuel. Sometimes people are simply misinformed.”
Gadkari kept stressing that people need to register an official complaint with authorised dealers, get a technical report and then complain to his ministry through the official website.
Read More: Smart Indians Trust Independent News Creators Over TV News For Obvious Reasons
The Pothole Problem
Megha Prasad then moved on to the potholes that litter the Indian roads and why this is a problem that still exists, especially when thousands of crores of rupees are spent on these projects, with the assurance that they will lead to a smoother life for the citizen. However, come rain or a bit of weather problem, these roads break in the first instance, thus increasing the problems for the people and also leading to unsafe roads.
Prasad asked, “I’m asking about the Delhi-Dehradun road. There were potholes there. You all spent thousands of crores of rupees. Someone said ₹12,000 crore, someone said ₹29,000 crore. You build highways worth thousands of crores using the best technology and materials. Then potholes appear immediately with the first rain. And if people ask questions, you’ll say it’s wrong? How can that be? Will I become anti-national just because I ask questions?”
To this, Gadkari responded with, “Any machine or equipment requires servicing. During servicing, sometimes spare parts have minor issues. Right? I don’t claim that there are no potholes anywhere. There was one pothole on the Dehradun road. There was a drainage system there. The farmers there didn’t give land. Because they didn’t give land, that work remained incomplete. The drainage remained incomplete. Water was supposed to flow through there. Then heavy rains came. Water accumulated. Because of that water, that portion was washed away. That incident is true.”
To this, Prasad raised the question that if the authorities knew that the drainage wasn’t complete there, then was it not fixed earlier?
To that, Gadkari said, “It doesn’t work like that, Madam. It’s a road of 225 kilometres. Inside that, whether one six-inch pipe is connected somewhere or not, no one can know that. Only when the rains came, and the road collapsed did it come to our notice. After that, the pipe was immediately repaired, and the road was fixed.”
This still did not answer the question that if the drainage work had remained incomplete in the first place, and why the road was opened for use. Why was that work not completed through some other way so that the drainage system was in place?
The Leaked ARAI Report
Next, she came to the question about the ARAI report that was leaked. She said, “In that report, which has not been made public, two or three things have been accepted. It says that if you use E20 ethanol in an E10-compliant engine, there can be problems with the fuel pump and with rubber parts. It also says that mileage can reduce by up to 6%. Now, first tell me this. You must have already known what was in the ARAI report. The report is old. You people are not making it public. Even after that, for a long time, Nitin Gadkari did not accept this. This is what the public is asking. Now that the report has leaked, Gadkari says, “Yes, yes, mileage reduces.” Earlier, you were not accepting it at all.”
Gadkari responded by saying that what the interviewer is saying has no connection with what he actually said, and that “From the very first day I have been saying that the calorific value of ethanol and the calorific value of petrol are different.”
Prasad then retorted, saying, “So you’ll call everyone a paid campaign? Will you say it is all a paid campaign? These are also questions from the public. Sometimes you should accept that too.” Gadkari then talked about how someone on social media said that “I am putting sugarcane juice into my vehicle and ants are coming” and how that was a false claim.
The interviewer then raised the topic of why the ARAI report was not being made public. She said, “When I was reading about it, it said that because of ‘commercial confidentiality, ‘ the report is not being released. This isn’t Operation Sindoor. It’s a report about petrol and ethanol. Then why isn’t it being released?”
Gadkari replied, saying that “You don’t know. There is no such confidentiality. ARAI reports go to every department. They go to automobile companies.”
When she asked why they don’t release it themself, he said, “There is no such procedure” and that “Whoever wants it can obtain it. They can seek it through the proper process.”
Son’s Ethanol Company’s Growth
The interviewer then raised one of the most controversial topics related to ethanol and Nitin Gadkari, that of his son Nikhil Gadkari and his company, Saiyan Agro. Prasad said, “If you read the comments below, people have calculated the net profit of your son’s company, Saiyan Agro. They say its net profit has gone from around ₹5 crore to ₹225 crore in the last five years, a 4,500% increase. They also say the company’s revenue has increased from ₹17 crore to ₹510 crore in a single year. That is why these questions are being asked.”
To this, Gadkari instantly replied, saying, “Let me tell you something. If someone speaks falsely, a defamation case can be filed. What you have just read, I can even file a defamation case against you.”
He tried to explain that “Look at the official records. My son’s main business is power. Sugar. Exports. Along with that, there are some small industries. The turnover from ethanol is not even 10% of the group’s total turnover. These figures are wrong. One hundred percent wrong.”
When the interviewer explained that these figures are from Google, Gadkari again said, “Then I can file a defamation case against you too. If you make something your basis simply because it’s on Google, then you take responsibility for it. These figures are incorrect.”
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Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: ABP News, India Today, The Hindu
Find the blogger: @chirali_08
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