Ilmi more beautiful, should have been BJP's CM candidate: Katju

Retired Supreme Court Justice and former Press Council chairman Markandey Katju drew flak on social media on Friday after he tweeted that he considered Shazia Ilmi more beautiful than Kiran Bedi and if she had been made BJP's CM candidate, the party would have won the elections.

Retired Supreme Court Justice and former Press Council chairperson Markandey Katju drew flak on social media on Friday after he tweeted that he considered Shazia Ilmi more beautiful than Kiran Bedi and if she had been made BJP's CM candidate, the party would have won the elections.

Shazia-Ilmi-Virendra-Singh-Gosain-HT-Photo

Going a step further, Katju said that people vote for beautiful faces, like in Croatia, and if Ilmi was the candidate, even someone like him who does not vote would have voted for her. When someone responded to him to say he should consider his age, he responded with a Hindi quotation, 'my heart is still young."

When the criticism started flowing for his sexist comment, Katju said people should develop a sense of humour, it was said in a lighter vein and should be construed as such. He then blogged, "what is wrong with you people? By admiring a beautiful flower, I am not plucking it, and by admiring a beautiful garden from a distance, I am not trespassing into it. Similarly, if I admire a beautiful woman, I am not misbehaving with her or taking liberties with her."

But most people on Twitter did not find it funny, for Katju has been making what many consider downright offensive remarks on social media in recent weeks.