New Delhi: After a Twitter user shared a clip of Bollywood actor Randeep Hooda making a sexist and casteist joke about former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati, the hashtag #ArrestRandeepHooda began trending on Twitter Friday.
In the 43-second video, which is from 2012, Hooda can be seen making the ‘joke’ about the Bahujan Samaj Party chief while part of what looks like a panel. However, it is unclear at which event this incident took place.
Calling out Hooda’s comments, the Twitter user wrote: “If this does not explain how casteist and sexist this society is, especially towards Dalit women, i don’t know what will. the ‘joke’, the audacity, the crowd. randeep hooda, top bollywood actor talking about a dalit woman, who has been the voice of the oppressed (sic)”.
if this does not explain how casteist and sexist this society is, especially towards dalit women, i don’t know what will. the “joke”, the audacity, the crowd. randeep hooda, top bollywood actor talking about a dalit woman, who has been the voice of the oppressed. pic.twitter.com/lVxTJKnj53
— Agatha Srishtie ? please DM with SOS tweets (@SrishtyRanjan) May 25, 2021
Soon after, the clip went viral and there was severe backlash against the actor for his sexist and casteist remarks.
Lawyer Mehmood Pracha said that apart from being down right casteist, the comments shows the disgraceful mindset of “not only the actor but all his audience” about the appearance of women.
Apart from being down right casteist it also shows the disgraceful mindset of not only the actor but all his audience about the appearance/looks of women. Not even one objected while so many were laughing and cheering. #DalitLivesMatter #womenlivesmatter#arrestrandeephooda https://t.co/FMt73AHZS7
— Mehmood Pracha (@MehmoodPracha) May 28, 2021
Kavita Krishnan, member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), also called out Hooda and said that he was “casteist, misogynist, insecure”.
Not a "joke" @RandeepHooda . You notice no one makes "jokes" saying a male politician is too ugly to f***? You are doing what casteist, misogynist, insecure turds do when confronted with women whose strength they fear: attack the woman as unattractive. https://t.co/F4WsmDLbCw
— Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) May 25, 2021
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Randeep Hooda removed as UN ambassador
Meanwhile, the Secretariat of the Convention for the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), the environmental treaty of the United Nations, issued a statement announcing that Hooda has been removed as its ambassador following his remarks.
“The CMS Secretariat finds the comments made in the video to be offensive, and they do not reflect the values of the CMS Secretariat or the United Nations”, the statement, issued Thursday, noted.
Hooda has not issued any statement on the matter.
Earlier, in 2017, the actor was also slammed for supporting cricketer Virendra Sehwag after the latter ridiculed Gurmehar Kaur, then a Delhi University student, after she posted a photo saying that “Pakistan did not kill her father, war did”. Kaur’s father was an Indian Army Captain who died when a Rashtriya Rifles camp came under attack in Jammu and Kashmir in 1999.
Recently, many comedians and social media influencers have been called out for cracking casteist and problematic jokes in the past. Comedian Abish Mathew’s video making fun of Mayawati had also recently gone viral, after which he apologised and said that he made the joke when he was “ignorant, immature and tone deaf”.
(Edited by Rachel John)
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