The actor was chastized online after a 2012 video emerged in which he allegedly made derogatory comments against Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati in front of a live audience.
Randeep Hooda dismissed as UN environment ambassador after 'casteist and sexist' joke
Mumbai - 29 May 2021 13:25 IST
Updated : 13:27 IST
Our Correspondent
Randeep Hooda has been dismissed as the brand ambassador of the Convention for the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) following an online outcry over a 2012 video in which he allegedly made a casteist and sexist joke against Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati.
The nine-year-old video was shared online on Wednesday, quickly going viral. In the 43-second clip, the actor, who is on a media panel with five other individuals in front of a live audience, announces he is going to tell a ‘dirty joke’ and the audience laughs along afterwards.
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
The hashtag ‘Arrest Randeep Hooda’ has been trending online on Twitter since then.
Hooda was removed from his post the day after the video went viral. On the CMS website, the secretariat put out an official statement about the actor’s dismissal.
It stated, “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. Mr Hooda was appointed as a CMS Ambassador for Migratory Species in February 2020 due to his support for the conservation of wildlife. The CMS Secretariat was unaware of the 2012 video at that time.”
“While CMS is a treaty of the United Nations, it is separate from both the UN Secretariat and the UN Environment Programme. The only entity for which Mr Hooda served as a brand ambassador was CMS. Mr Hooda no longer serves as a CMS ambassador,” it added.
Hooda, who was last seen in the Salman Khan-starrer Radhe (2021) as the villain, has not apologized to Mayawati, the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, and comment on the issue.
He will next be seen in the comedy Unfair & Lovely with actress Ileana D’Cruz.
