Randeep Hooda removed as ambassador of United Nation body over his insensitive remarks on Mayawati

Bollywood actor Randeep Hooda was removed as the ambassador of the Convention for the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) - an environmental treaty of the United Nations, said its secretariat, in a statement.

The shocking move comes after an old video of Randeep went viral which featured him making insensitive jokes on former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. Several claimed the remarks to be “casteist and sexist.” He was speaking at an event hosted by the media house, India Today, in 2012.

After reviewing the video, the CMS Secretariat noted the comments made in the video to be “offensive”.

It said that they “did not reflect the values” of the CMS Secretariat or the United Nations. It also added that the organisation was unaware of the 2012 video at the time Hooda was appointed as a CMS Ambassador for Migratory Species in February 2020.

The entire statement read:

The Secretariat of the Convention for the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) has become aware of a video clip of CMS Ambassador Randeep Hooda from around 2012 that was recently posted on social media.  The CMS Secretariat finds the comments made in the video to be offensive, and they do not reflect the values of the CMS Secretariat or the United Nations. 

Mr. Hooda was appointed as a CMS Ambassador for Migratory Species in February 2020 due to his support for the conservation of wildlife. The CMS Secretariat was unaware of the 2012 video at that time.

While CMS is a treaty of the United Nations, it is separate from both the UN Secretariat and the UN Environment Programme. The only entity for which Mr. Hooda served as a brand Ambassador was CMS.

Mr. Hooda no longer serves as a CMS ambassador.

Shortly after the video went viral, social media has been demanding an apology and are also trolling Hooda. Recently, 'Arrest Randeep Hooda' also started trending on Twitter.

Slamming the 'dirty joke' Randeep Hooda made on politician Mayawati, one Twitter user said, "if this does not explain how casteist and sexist this society is, especially towards dalit women, i don’t know what will. the “joke”, the audacity, the crowd. randeep hooda, top bollywood actor talking about a dalit woman, who has been the voice of the oppressed." Another tweeted, "Threat & insult of a women anywhere is a threat to their respect & dignity everywhere."

Now, actor Richa Chadha has also slammed the joke made by Randeep Hooda in a series of tweets calling it 'despicable' and 'casteist'. 

Tagged in a tweet along with Taapsee Pannu, Swara Bhasker, and Konkona Sensharma, Richa was asked if she'd condemn the remarks made by Randeep in that resurfaced clip.

On the work front, Randeep Hooda was last seen in the recently released film, Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai, starring Salman Khan. He played the antagonist in the Eig biggie, also starring Disha Patani and Jackie Shroff. The actor will be next seen in the web series Inspector Avinash. The cop thriller also features Urvashi Rautela, Freddy Daruwala, Govind Namdev, Adhyayan Suman, Amit Sial, Priyanka Bose and Abhimanyu Singh.