THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The internet had an absolute field day over the petty faux pas made by Kerala Industry and Sports Minister EP Jayarajan in his obituary reference on late boxing great Muhammad Ali. The senior CPI (M) leader when asked by a TV channel, his reaction to the death of Ali started off by saying "he just heard the news that Muhammad Ali passed away in America." The statement was all good until he followed it up with "Ali was an eminent sports personality of Kerala and is one who has won a gold medal thereby raising Kerala's position in the world."
Not realising his mistake, the embarassed TV news anchor was quick to intervene and save the minister from further mess. However, the blooper was not lost on the Twitterati who trolled Jayarajan to no end. Some of the tweets read, "Had not the anchor intervened, the minister would have announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs. 5 lakhs and a state government job for Ali's daughter." and "Thank god, the news reader stopped asking him more questions. Otherwise, he would have announced that he would make all arrangements to bring Ali’s mortal remains to Kerala."
He later explained why he goofed up. Jayarajan wrote a Facebook post saying "a mistake is a mistake". The person who called him said "our Muhammad Ali died in America. He has won several gold medals," and that the minister should give a condolence message, he said. "At that time, I was not aware that the boxing champion of yesteryear had passed away."
