Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has been clamouring for an increased number of airbags in cars for the last few years. He recently shared an advertisement on the use of 6 airbags in cars featuring Akshay Kumar. However, the video commercial has backfired as many users on social media, including Opposition leaders, slammed it for promoting dowry culture.
“Use 6-airbag vehicles for having safer journeys,” Gadkari tweeted in Hindi on Friday sharing the new video. The commercial shows Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar advising a father to give a better car to his daughter as the current one only has two airbags.
Member of Rajya Sabha and Deputy Leader of Shiv Sena, Priyanka Chaturvedi took a dig at the Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry, which has released the ad film, asking whether the government was spending money to promote vehicular safety or the act of dowry.
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“This is such a problematic advertisement. Who passes such creatives? Is the government spending money to promote the safety aspect of a car or promoting the evil and criminal act of dowry through this ad?” Chaturvedi tweeted.
Trinamool Congress National Spokesperson, Saket Gokhale, also spoke out against the advertisement. He even accused the government of “deflecting its responsibility” on fixing the accident-prone roads.
“Disgusting to see Indian govt officially promoting dowry. What even? Cyrus Mistry died because the road design was faulty. That spot is an accident-prone area. Amazing way to deflect responsibility by pushing for 6 airbags (and expensive cars) instead of fixing roads,” tweeted Gokhale.
Other users on the platform have also taken umbrage at the advertisement.
“This ad is the pits. Lost the plot completely. Is this about the wedding, the bride or that dowry should be 6 airbag car-what is it? These govt ads are so puerile and ill-conceived. They couldn't talk about safety any other way?” said one Twitter user.
“Only in India would the Govt spend taxpayer money to create an ad campaign promoting a punishable offence, dowry,” added another.
Apart from the dowry aspect of the ad campaign, other users have also criticised it for trying to reduce road accidents through the use of more airbags, a feature that’s not found in the vast majority of affordable vehicles that Indians drive.
“Promoting dowry aside, are you going to tax such vehicles more? Or will you give tax deductions for people's safety?” asked one Twitter user.
Other users also pointed out that instead of promoting more airbags, more work could be done to reduce risk on highways. While Mistry’s own death was blamed on the driver, the faulty bridge design where 3 lanes suddenly merge into two without warning has been blamed by many experts for being the main cause of the accident.
The Central government has estimated that 150,000 people died in over 500,000 road accidents in India in 2021, many of which would be alive with the use of more airbags and seat belts.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
