"Porn" comment made in context of 'Chhapaak' "distorted": BJP leader Gopal Bhargava
Bhopal, Jan 10: BJP leader Gopal Bhargava on Friday said his "porn" remark made in context of Hindi film 'Chhapaak' getting tax-free status in the Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh has been "distorted", and took potshots at actor Deepika Padukone over her visit to Delhi's JNU.
The Leader of Opposition in the assembly said the film - based on the life of an acid attack survivor - played by actor Padukone - has been made tax-free by the Congress due to politician reasons.
Asked about his comment that even if it was a "porn" film, it would have been made tax-free in the Congress-ruled state, the BJP legislator appeared to distance himself from the controversial statement.
It was not like that. My statement was distorted. My sarcastic comment was misinterpreted," he told PTI.
"The film was not even released and still it was made tax-free. Be it stunt or action or anything...if porn, they would have done it even then," Bhargava told reporters in Hoshangabad on Thursday when asked about the Hind film getting tax-free status in Madhya Pradesh.
The film, directed by Meghna Gulzar, was declared tax -free in the Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh on Thursday, a day before its release.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath took to Twitter on Thursday to make the announcement, saying the movie gives a "positive message to the society about acid attack survivors."
Speaking to reporters in Harda on Thursday, Bhargava took a dig at Padukone over her visit to JNU on Tuesday to express solidarity with students injured in attack by masked goons over the last weekend.
A heroine should dance in Mumbai. Why should she go to JNU? I don't understand such people who have come up...who are called activist-artists," he said.
"The MP government declared it ('Chhapaak') tax-free because activities of its stars suit their ideology. JNU is a place for study and not for promotional activities of Bollywood movies," Bhargava said.
He said the earlier practice was for a state government committee to declare a film tax-free, but in case of 'Chhapaak', the Baadshah (a reference to Nath) himself made the announcement.
Reacting strongly to Bhargavas "porn" comments, MP Congress media department chairperson Shobha Oza termed them as derogatory towards women.
"On one hand Chief Minister Kamal Nath has decided to make the film tax-free to give a positive message to the society, while on the other Bhargava has made remarks which are too low and highly derogatory towards women," she said.
Oza also condemned Bhargava for describing the actress, the daughter of badminton legend Prakash Padukone, as "nachnewali" and termed it highly undignified for women.
"It reflects not just Bhargavas thinking about women, but also exposes the entire BJP," she said.
Padukone's visit to the JNU campus evoked a range of reactions. Many appreciated her "silent solidarity" with JNU students, but some others criticised her for "supporting Leftists", saying it was a promotional stunt ahead of her film's release.
A section of BJP leaders has targeted Padukone over her move.
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Bengaluru: In a significant move towards enhancing disaster preparedness, the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC), in collaboration with UNICEF, launched the Karnataka State Disaster Risk Reduction Roadmap (KSDRR) 2025-2030 on Monday, marking the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction.
With this initiative, Karnataka has become the fifth state in India to launch the Disaster Risk Reduction Roadmap, following Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Assam, as reported by The New Indian Express.
The new roadmap is designed to mitigate the impact of natural disasters and reduce the state’s vulnerability. Over the past five years, Karnataka has suffered an estimated Rs 1 lakh crore in losses due to floods, droughts, lightning, hailstorms, fire, and other calamities. Addressing these challenges, Mullai Muhilan, Director of KSNDMC, emphasised that the goal of the KSDRR is to implement a systematic approach to preventing and managing such disasters.
“The theme on this day is ‘Fund Resilience, Not Disasters’, and that is why this roadmap is a framework of existing solutions to reduce and prevent losses by mitigating floods, drought, earthquakes, heat waves and so on,” TNIE quoted Muhilan as saying.
The KSDRR outlines a multi-phase strategy, which includes a vulnerability profile of Karnataka, highlights DRR developments, initiatives taken in the state, financial arrangements, and defines the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders as per the National Disaster Management Act, 2005.
The roles and responsibilities, work implementation in the road map are based on three major milestones divided to achieve in five years. All departments, gram panchayats have prepared disaster management plans with latest data as baseline information.
In milestone 2 for the year 2027-28, the roadmap envisions that the state has to collaborate and partner with various stake holders from local to global level. In milestone 3, for the year 2029-30, it mentions reducing infrastructure damage, human and animal deaths, casualties by 75%.
“Currently, KSNDMC has applications including Varuna Mitra, dedicated mainly to providing weather forecast to farmers across the state. Similarly, we have Megha Sandesha, a mobile app developed in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science. This app was created to mitigate urban floods and it provides information to various government bodies especially BWSSB, and others. We are still working on this app to provide information and data to BDA, GBA on the areas that might flood in the future. They can use this data before giving clearance to buildings of layouts,” explained Muhilan.
As part of the roadmap, several government departments have been directed to work towards risk identification, risk reduction, preparedness, financial protection, and resilient recovery. For instance, the Education Department will be responsible for developing school-level disaster management plan.
The roadmap also outlines a robust infrastructure for real-time disaster monitoring. Karnataka has already installed 6,500 telemetric rain gauge stations at the gram panchayat level, alongside 850 telemetric weather stations at the taluk level. Other installations include lightning and thunderstorm sensors, water level sensors in Bengaluru and surrounding cities, and seismic sensors at major dam sites.
