Rashmi Tyagi, wife of Uttarakhand chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat has come in support of her husband’s “ripped jeans” comment saying it was blown out of context and “wrongly interpreted”. She further clarified her husband’s remark saying that he was making a point about blindly imitating western culture while ignoring one’s own.
“He was talking about how we are aping western culture blindly and not following our 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.
CM Rawat on Tuesday, made comments about distressed jeans while discussing substance abuse at a workshop organised by the Uttarakhand state commission for protection of child rights in Dehradun.
While recalling an incident with a woman on a flight who was wearing ripped jeans along with two kids and was working with an NGO, Rawat said, “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 are a bad example parents set for children.”
The newly elected CM’s remarks drew flak with women rights activists and opposition Congress criticising him for his controversial statements by posting pictures with ripped jeans on Twitter and calling out Rawat that his mentality is ripped which needs to be mended first.
Defending Rawat’s point, Prof Tyagi said that her husband will never say such a thing as his intention was 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.
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Saying that her husband is doing such good work in such little time, but no one is debating on that. There are so many more pressing issues people are facing in the country; why is that not being discussed, she questioned.
“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 by the sentiments of people and takes a lot of care about what people feel about various issues,” she stressed.