Uttar Pradesh Assembly Speaker Hriday Narayan Dikshit said that if one could become great just by dressing scantily, then cine actor Rakhi Sawant would have become greater than Mahatma Gandhi. After the statement snowballed into a controversy, Dikshit distanced himself from it, claiming that he had been quoted out of context.
“The moderator conducting ‘Prabuddh Varg Sammelan’ (meeting of intellectuals) organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bangarmau assembly constituency of Unnao district, introduced me as a great author and intellectual. I responded by saying Gandhiji used to dress scantily and used to wrap just a dhoti. The country called him Bapu. If somebody could become great just by taking their clothes off, then Rakhi Sawant would have become greater than Mahatma Gandhi," Dikshit said and went on to add that no one had become an intellectual by writing a book on any topic and if that was the case for so many years, he had read at least 6,000 books.
A video clipping of the UP Assembly speaker’s speech went viral on social media, following which Dikshit posted a series in Hindi to clarify his position.
“Some friends on social media are showing the clip of a video of my speech with an oblique meaning. This was part of my speech at the ‘Prabuddh Sammelan’ in Unnao, in which the moderator introduced me saying that ‘I am an enlightened writer’," Dikshit tweeted.
In another tweet, the speaker posted, “I took this point forward saying that no one becomes an intellectual by writing some books. Mahatma Gandhi used to dress scantily. The country called him ‘Bapu’. But that does not mean Rakhi Sawant will become a Gandhiji. Friends, take my speech in the right context."