Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, who had earlier created a flutter with his “Internet existed since Mahabharata era” remark, and followed it up with an advice for Mamata Banerjee to visit a temple and get her ‘brain checked’, has stoked yet another controversy. The BJP leader has raised questions over the logic and rationale behind Diana Hayden being crowned as Miss World 1997 even as he heaped praise on Aishwarya Rai. Rai was adjudged as the winner of the Miss World in 1994. Deb also raised questions over authenticity of outcomes of these beauty pageants.
Addressing a day-long design workshop on handlooms and handicrafts at the Prajna Bhavan in Agartala, Deb said that results at these beauty pageants are all fixed and predetermined. “They make the girls walk with fabric on the ramps. Those who give the certificates are all international textile market mafia. They plan beforehand who will get the award and this is 100 per cent true,” the Tripura CM further said.
Likening achievements of Hayden and Rai, he said, “We see women as goddess Laxmi, Saraswati. Aishwarya Rai represents the Indian women. She became the Miss World and that’s all right. But I do not understand the beauty of Diana Hayden.”
Deb, who became the chief minister after BJP ended the Left rule in the state, said. “Why are there no more beauty pageant winners from India? They (the jury) have captured the market in the country and have gone elsewhere,” he claimed. “Whoever contested the international beauty pageants won. For five consecutive years, we won the Miss World/Miss Universe awards. Diana Hayden won it too. Do you think she should have won the title?” he wondered.
Earlier, Deb said that the constitution treats all states as equal. However, a few states are “bigger in size”, he said. “… Mamata didi should go to a temple and then get her brain examined at a hospital,” the Tripura CM said.
Deb’s comments came days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi cautioned the BJP leaders to steer clear of controversies and not offer “masala” to the media by making irresponsible statements. Earlier, Deb’s “internet” drew flak. “Not the US and other western countries, but the internet was invented by India lakhs of years ago. Many may decline the fact, but if the internet was not there, how could Sanjay see the war in Kurukshetra and describe it to Dhritarashtra? It means internet was there, the satellites and that technology was there in this country at that time,” he had said earlier this month.
