Uttarakhand chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat’s wife, professor Rashmi Tyagi, has rallied behind her husband over his “ripped jeans” comment, saying it was “blown out of context” and “wrongly interpreted”. Clarifying further, she said her husband was making a point about blindly aping western culture while ignoring one’s own.
“He was talking about how we are aping western culture blindly and not following our own traditions and values which are seeped with thousands of years of cultural wisdom. But his one word was picked up and blown out of context and wrongly interpreted. He spoke for nearly one hour, but nobody talks about the whole theme he was trying to focus on. Did he say only one word-jeans?” asked Prof Tyagi, who teaches psychology at Garhwal university.
On Tuesday, CM Rawat made the comments about distressed jeans while discussing substance abuse at a workshop organised by the Uttarakhand state commission for protection of child rights in Dehradun.
“Showing bare knees by wearing ripped jeans just to look like rich kids is the value given now which is just a race towards westernisation when the western world today are following us. Ripped jeans pave the way for societal breakdown and is a bad example parents set for children,” said the CM while recounting an encounter with a woman wearing distressed jeans in a plane.
The new CM’s remarks drew flak with women rights activists and opposition Congress panning him for his controversial remarks.
{{/usCountry}}The new CM’s remarks drew flak with women rights activists and opposition Congress panning him for his controversial remarks.
{{/usCountry}}Prof Tyagi said her husband can never say such things as his intention was altogether different. “My husband was saying that our food and dress should be in tune with the local culture and aping Western culture blindly was not the right thing. It is our moral responsibility to keep alive our culture and traditions”, she said.
“My husband has been doing such good work for the last four days, why are they not focusing on that, debating that. There are so many more pressing issues people are facing in the country; why is that not being discussed,” she said.
Tyagi said her husband has been a big supporter of women related issues.
“My husband has a progressive and mature outlook. He has reached this point because of his positive behaviour with people, with party cadre. He works in accordance with the sentiments of people and takes a lot of care about what people feel about various issues,” she stressed.