INDIA – Kerala’s sports minister is being pummelled on the Internet after an embarrassing gaffe he made on live TV about boxing legend Muhammad Ali.
Mr E. P. Jayarajan, who is Industry and Sports Minister for Kerala state, called the late boxer “the eminent personality of Kerala’s sporting world”, according to media reports.
He made the comment on Saturday (June 4) when asked by a television channel in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala’s capital city, for his reaction to Ali’s death.
According to the Times of India, he went on to add: “Ali won gold medals and elevated the name of Kerala internationally.”
Lucky for the minister, the news anchor cut him off quickly and saved him from embarrassing himself further, reported NDTV.
But the damage was done.
News of his goof-up quickly spread online, and the politician became the subject of ridicule.
According to Google Trends, “kerala sports minister” was the fifth top trending Google search in India on Sunday (June 5), a day after the embarrassing faux pas. It racked up more than 20,000 searches.
“The country is in the hands of clowns,” commented Facebook user Sebastian Pinto.
Another Facebook user, Aravindaksha Menon, asked: “Why he was in a hurry to react if he knew nothing about Ali?”
Ali, 74, was one of the world’s most iconic sportsmen. He died last Friday (June 3), of “septic shock due to unspecified natural causes”, reported the BBC.
The three-time world heavyweight champion hails from Louisville in Kentucky, a long away from Kerala in India.
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xiuhuil@sph.com.sg
