Nitin Gadkari shares Akshay Kumar ad on road safety, users slam video for 'promoting dowry'

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s attempt to educate his followers by sharing an advertisement about road safety backfired recently, after internet users slammed the advert for 'promoting dowry'. The Union Minister had shared a series of videos featuring Akshay Kumar to highlight the government’s attempts to ensure six airbags in all cars. The ad in the eye of the storm features the actor dressed as a police officer. At a wedding, he taunts a father for endangering his newly-married daughter by sending her in a car with only two airbags.The video ends with the couple in a new car, one with six bags. While sharing the clip, Nitin Gadkari wrote in hindi, “Make life safer by traveling in a vehicle with 6 airbags.”Several people found the advertisement "problematic", including Shiv Sena leader and Member of Parliament Priyanka Chaturvedi. “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& criminal act of dowry through this ad?” she wrote.The national spokesperson of the Trinamool Congress, Saket Gokhale, also criticised the video. “Disgusting to see Indian govt officially promoting dowry”, he commented.Many users slammed the Centre for focusing on the issue of airbags only, instead of trying to improve road design and safety in the country.Several people wrote that the need of the hour is improving the basic infrastructure instead of promoting cars with six airbags.Some users also pointed out that the couple seen in the video were not wearing seatbelts.The Centre has pushed for six airbags in cars and mandatory wearing of seatbelts for people sitting in the back of the cars after former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry passed away in a road accident on 4 September.Speaking at the IAA Global Summit last week, Gadkari had mourned the passing of the industrialist and promised that the government would bring in new rules related to road safety soon. Later on, the Union Minister had also asked online retail giant Amazon to stop selling clips that disable seatbelt alarms in cars.Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.