‘He wanted to drive but since it’s illegal, I allowed him to sit in driver’s seat’: When Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán took autorickshaw ride around Fort Kochi
On January 4, the four autos dutifully lined up at Calvathy, along with other escort vehicles and ambulances. Viktor and his two daughters boarded Hussain’s auto, while his security team followed in the other three.
The security protocols included a thorough check by a bomb squad, inspection of the vehicle’s documents and a thorough vetting of the drivers.
When Siddique Hussain, a 53-year-old auto driver in Kochi’s Calvathy got a call earlier this month from Kochi’s Fragrant Nature hotel for rickshaws, he thought nothing of it. It wasn’t unusual for him to get such calls for tourists who wanted cheaper modes of transport in and around Fort Kochi. But when he was asked to undergo security checks, he realised who his guest was: Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister, who’s on holiday in Kerala with his wife and two youngest daughters.
On January 4, Orbán and his two daughters went around Fort Kochi in Hussain’s auto.
“Two days before the trip, I got a call from a hotel at Fort Kochi. The hotel manager told me that the prime minister, his wife and two daughters, will be coming and they want three-wheelers for sightseeing. The hotel asked for four auto-rickshaws,” he said.
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