Don’t wear skirts, Culture Minister tells foreign tourists

Agra (Uttar Pradesh), August 29

Union Tourism and Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma has committed a faux pas by advising female tourists not to wear short skirts while moving around Agra city in the evenings.

However, after a journalist sought Sharma’s justification, the latter retracted or amended his view by saying that the suggestion was made with regard to visits to religious places.

“When visitors land at the airport, they will be provided with a welcome kit. The kit contains a card, a pamphlet which describes do’s and don’ts. Where it will ask the visitors not to travel at night, ask them not to wear skirts,” he said on Saturday.

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“In that kit, there is a pamphlet which says that India is a cultural state where apparels change with respect to religious places like temples and asks the visitors to mind their dress codes,” he retorted.

He also asked visitors to take a photograph of every vehicle’s number plate as a precautionary measure while travelling.

Sharma, last year, had stoked controversy by saying that girls wanting a night out was not acceptable in India. — ANI