India Covid crisis: Chief minister asks scientists to convert nitrogen into oxygen; Twitter in splits

Uttar Pradesh - The barrage of memes came after he proposed the “solution” to the country's current oxygen shortage.

Reacting to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s recent statement asking scientists to look into the possibility of converting nitrogen to oxygen as a solution to the ongoing Covid crisis in India, Twitter users have responded like only they can — with memes.

In a now-deleted tweet, the chief minister's office had directed that institutions like IIT Kanpur should coordinate with experts to explore the proposal.

Twitter users, however, were unimpressed.

“It's so simple, just give two bags of rice to nitrogen & it'll convert with the whole periodic table,” suggested one user.

Some users suggested merely renaming the gases might do the trick.

Still some others expressed concerns that the move might be in violation of the state’s well-known anti-conversion laws.

The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday announced a lockdown will remain in place in the state until 7am on Tuesday due to a surge in Covid cases.

• India