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People Start Panic Filling Fuel In Chennai After Congress Simp Sumanth Raman And D Stock Media Peddle Fears Of Shortage

By
The Commune
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Scenes of chaos and long queues were witnessed at petrol pumps across Chennai as residents rushed to fill their tanks amid viral rumours of an impending fuel shortage. The panic, however, was largely manufactured, driven by irresponsible social media posts by Dravidianists, most notably by Congress simp and all-in-all commentator Sumanth Raman and doom-peddling Dravidian stock media accounts.

On the night of 9 March 2026, Sumanth Raman quote-retweeted a post by journalist Nagarjun Dwarakanath, which flagged LPG supply disruptions at hotels and restaurants in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Chennai. Instead of adding context or urging calm, Sumanth Raman amplified the fear by writing, “A similar crisis could happen with petrol and diesel in a few days. Guess people simply need to take precautions themselves. Companies can announce WFH and industry can start thinking of all possible ways to save fuel. The Modi Govt has proved particularly inept at handling any crisis in the past and so to expect it to be different this time is to deceive ourselves.”

In a follow-up post the next day, he doubled down, writing, “And we need to start saving NOW” quoting another handle that was pushing rumours about cooking gas shortage, further stoking fear with zero factual basis for a fuel crisis.

Within a short time of these posts circulating, panic buying of petrol and diesel was reported at fuel stations across Chennai. The Hindu’s Chennai bureau documented motorists thronging a Velachery fuel outlet on Wednesday night (March 11), with long queues forming.

Here are a few such posts from Dravidian stockists and the subsequent panic buying reports.

Here are some scenes of panic buying in Tamil Nadu.

 

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The underlying trigger was a genuine but limited LPG supply disruption affecting commercial establishments, hotels and restaurants in metros, linked to India’s exposure to West Asia oil supply chains amid the ongoing Iran conflict. However, this was a commercial LPG issue, not a petrol or diesel crisis. There has been no official warning or shortage of retail automotive fuel at any point. Instead, the government has been assuring the public that there is enough fuel for the next 3 months.

What began as a legitimate concern over commercial LPG availability in a few cities was weaponised into a full-blown petrol panic by politically motivated social media commentary. The result, long queues at Chennai fuel stations, was entirely self-inflicted, caused by viral misinformation rather than any actual supply crisis.

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