Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said on Thursday that international businessmen had taken “undue advantage” of Indians winning beauty pageants earlier to market their products in the country. He claimed Indians no longer win such pageants because the “international marketing mafia” had already captured the Indian market, The Northeast Today reported.
“Indian women did not use cosmetics,” he said, according to the publication. “They did not use shampoo. We washed our hair with methi water for hairfall and bathed with mud. Beauty contest organisers are the international marketing mafia who tried to capture a market of 125 crore Indians with half the population being women.”
While addressing an event in Agartala, the chief minister said he did not think Miss World 1997 Diana Hayden was worthy of the crown. He compared her to Miss World 1994 Aishwarya Rai, who, in his opinion, better represented the essence of Indian beauty.
“International companies made plans to take over our Indian traditional products and consequently, we got a Miss World from India five times,” he said, according to the Hindustan Times. “Any Indian contestant seemed to be able to take part in the Miss World contest and win the crown, even Diana Hayden got it. I am not criticising her but did not find traits of Indian beauty in her.”
Deb is no stranger to making controversial statements. Last week, he said that the internet and technology existed during the time of the Mahabharata. His comments saw Twitter explode with humour and also earned him international coverage. He had also recently said that the government’s achievement of sending “104 satellites a year to space” proved the claims in the Mahabharata, Ramayana and Upanishads about India’s developed science in ancient times.
Reacting to his latest comments, Femina Miss India contestant from Tripura Mamita Debbarma said Deb’s remarks were shameful. “Governments in other states felicitate and promote people who win these accolades,” she told The Northeast Today. “We work hard for beauty contests. This comment is very unfortunate and shameful.”
The Tripura Congress said his remarks reflected the Bharatiya Janata Party’s “unfathomable disrespect” for women. “I feel ashamed to comment on statements of Chief Minister Deb,” said Tripura Congress Vice President Tapas De. “His loose comments have shown that the BJP does not know to respect women. They disregard women. I feel ashamed that he is our chief minister.”
Scroll.in has the purported audio of the speech but could not independently verify whether it was of the chief minister speaking.
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