Minister of State for Tourism K.J. Alphons seems to be finding a way to stay in the headlines, perhaps unwittingly.
In recent months, he had held forth on how tourists who like beef should eat the meat before coming to India or not walk around in bikinis and more recently, he claimed how some Indians had no problem 'getting naked' in front of a white man to get a visa but were complaining about Aadhaar linking.
On Thursday, the minister claimed guys in 'swanky' cars were the most unruly drivers. He was speaking at the inauguration of a two-day conference on 'Safer Road Transportation to promote National Tourism' in Delhi. He claimed that 'millionaires' should be the first to be trained in road safety.
More controversially, Alphons seemingly alluded to a hit-and-run case involving Bollywood star Salman Khan in 2002. He said, “We think that once we have a swanky car, we own the whole world, we have the right to run over people sleeping on footpaths; of course, there are lawyers who will manipulate the facts and bring in a poor guy who will say he was driving.”
Khan was acquitted by the Bombay High Court in December 2015 after being found guilty in the case earlier that year; one person was killed and four injured in the incident.
Alphons stressed that 'change' in road safety should begin with 'big' people and seemingly questioned the need for a police escort vehicle for himself, saying, “Who wants to kill the poor tourism minister of the country?” Alphons confessed to being embarrassed at having to drive around with an escort.
Alphons batted for more road safety as a means to double the flow of tourists in the next three years.
(With agency inputs)