Gaur fuels controversy, Calls Drinking fundamental right

Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Babulal Gaur fuelled another controversy with his remarks that drinking liquor is a "fundamental right" and that it is a status symbol too. The 85-year-old Gaur made the remarks while asserting that <g data-gr-id="17">crime</g> rate doesn't go up by consuming alcohol. "Alcohol does not increase crime. People lose their consciousness after consuming alcohol and that's how it causes crime. The person who drinks within <g data-gr-id="15">control</g> does not cause crime," he said, adding," one should not overdrink. It is one's fundamental right. Drinking is a social status symbol these days". The controversy-prone minister was asked by reporters here on Sunday for his reaction to extending the timing for <g data-gr-id="14">sale</g> of alcohol in Bhopal from 10 pm to 11.30 pm. Gaur had previously said that sexual crime in Chennai is low as women wear "full clothes".  He was also at the centre of a controversy when he recalled at an event on how he had once told the wife of a Russian leader that he can teach her how to untie a dhoti.