On some days, it seems as if foot-in-the-mouth disease is a permanent condition for public figures in India, as their tongues run amok and bizarre connections with little logic seem most plausible to them. From rape to natural disasters, these public personalities have had some strange, often tasteless, theories of causation to offer. For anyone not following the news in the last few days, the venerated Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati is the latest to “fall victim” to this disease. We bring you his take on the Kedarnath floods and work our way back through recent history to bring you other such choice statements.
““People coming from different parts of the country to holy places of Devbhoomi (Uttarakhand) for enjoyment, picnic and honeymoon led to the Kedarnath disaster.”— Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati.
This famous seer has been courting controversy for his strange statements on various issues. After his recent comment on the Shani Shingnapur issue, where he said allowing women to enter the sanctum will lead to rise in crimes against them, his latest observation on the cause behind the Kedarnath floods takes the cake.
“Don’t eat chowmein, it leads to rape” — Jitendra Chhatar
Eureka! The reason behind rapes has been unearthed. According to Haryana Khap Panchayat leader Jitendra Chhatar, eating chowmein will lead to rape. “Chowmein leads to hormonal imbalance evoking an urge to indulge in such acts," clarified Jitendra Chhatar. To add to our woes, he also lumped burgers and pizzas in the same category of culpability. Whatever will we eat now?
“Terror attacks have grown in Mumbai due to increase in the population of North Indians in the city” — Raj Thackeray
Raj Thackeray has always been very vocal about his reservations against the North Indian community in Maharashtra. However, his statements relating the increase in incidence of terror attacks to the north Indian community only stress on his standpoint of how ‘outsiders’ are the reason behind every problem in Mumbai.
“If there is electricity in every village, people will watch TV till late night and then fall asleep. They won’t get a chance to produce children. When there is no electricity, there is nothing else to do, but produce babies”— Ghulam Nabi Azad
The new population control mechanism is here. ‘Electricity will solve India’s population problem’, said Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Health and Family Welfare Minister, in 2009. He firmly believed that with the presence of a TV in the family living room, there will be an alternative to couples producing more offspring, as they will spend their time watching TV. And he was quite serious about electrification of rural pockets being a method to curb population, so wipe away any doubts you may have on his theory.
“Zodiac signs can predict how women might get sexually abused. I can suggest a mantra for its prevention” — Sachidananda Babu
Guruji Sachidananda Babu, as he is fondly called, is a famous name from Bengaluru in the astrology field. However, pinning sexual abuseto zodiac signs is the height of astrological predictions. And what’s more, he even claimed has a mantra that can protect women from getting raped or abused.