Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has made news once again. The BJP leader and Tripura’s Chief Minister who is known for his bloopers has made headlines for one controversial statement after another not too long ago. He recently said that ducks swimming in water helps increase the level of oxygen in a water body.
The Bharatiya Janata Party leader said he wants every family to rear ducks because “when ducks swim in water, the oxygen level automatically increases in the water body. It (the water) gets recycled. Fish in the water will get more oxygen. They also benefit from the bird droppings. Thus, pisciculture will benefit and fishes will grow faster, that too in a completely organic way”. Deb said that the government was planning to distribute 50,000 ducklings to villagers whose homes are near water bodies, reported timesnownews.com. He said this while he was addressing a crowd on Monday evening during a traditional boat race programme held at Rudrasagar Lake.
But this is not the first time Biplab Kumar Deb has made it to headlines. He has uttered many controversial statement in the past. Here are some of his famous bloopers:
- Some of the claims made by him include the existence of the Internet during the Mahabharata age. He had said: “Internet and satellite communication had existed in the days of ‘Mahabharata’. How else could Sanjaya (the charioteer of King Dhritarashtra in the epic) give a detailed account and description to the blind king about the battle of Kurukshetra? It means the internet was there, the satellites and that technology was there in this country at that time.”
- Biplab Kumar Deb also made headlines by stating that the international beauty pageants were a farce and questioned the rationale behind crowning Diana Hayden “Miss World” 21 years ago. The BJP leader, however, was all praise for Aishwarya Rai, who won the Miss World crown in 1994, saying she “represents the Indian women” in the true sense. “Indian women did not use cosmetics in the old times. Indians did not use shampoo, they washed their hair with methi water and bathed in mud. These beauty pageant organisers are international marketing mafia, who spotted a huge market in the country. Today, there is a beauty parlour in every corner of the country,” he said.
- Deb hit a hat-trick and said that civil engineers, and not mechanical engineers, should opt for civil services. “Those who are from a mechanical engineering background should not opt for civil services. Society has to be built up. Civil engineers have this knowledge… Because those in the administration have to build society.”
- Tripura’s chief minister further courted controversy by saying that if anyone criticises his government “their nails need to be chopped off”, reported ANI news agency. “It shouldn’t happen that with my government, somebody points fingers at it or scratches it with their nails. Anyone who scratches it, their nails should be chopped off,” said Deb in a speech, the video of which was tweeted by ANI.
- Biplab Kumar Deb also made headlines by telling Tripura youths to not run behind politicians seeking government jobs, and instead become self-sufficient by starting milking cows or open paan shops for livelihood. Deb, while addressing a seminar organised by Tripura Veterinary Council, said, “The youth here run after political parties for several years to get a government job and waste the vital time of their life, had the same youth instead of running after parties set up a paan shop he would have by now had a bank balance of Rs 5 lakhs.” He also advised graduates to rear a cow instead of remaining unemployed. “Every household must rear a cow. Here milk sells for Rs 50 a litre. Had a graduate who has been searching for employment in the last 10 years reared a cow, then their bank balance would have been Rs 10 lakh by now,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.