NEW DELHI: According to Tripura chief minister Biplab Deb, civil engineers, and not mechanical engineers should pursue the Civil Services Examination as they are well versed in running an administration and society.

"After pursuing mechanical engineering one should not go for Civil Services. Instead, civil engineers should join Civil Services as they have the knowledge and experience to help build administration and society," Deb said.

Earlier, arts graduates used to appear for the Civil Services Examination and now, medical and engineering graduates are also joining the services, he said.

Deb said Civil Services aspirants should be all-rounders as "people who are experts in all disciplines have the highest demand".

To drive his point home, he cited the examples of Sachin Tendulkar and Kapil Dev. "People take names of special players such as Sachin Tendulkar and Kapil Dev. Dev's bowling was good, but batting was also excellent. This is the age of speciality. All-rounders are accorded highest priority," Deb said.

The Tripura chief minister is no stranger to making controversial statements.

Earlier this week, he landed himself in soup after questioning the "process of judgement" involved in the crowning of Diana Hayden over two decades ago in 1997.

Claiming that the decision to award Miss World and Miss Universe titles to Indian women for five years in a row was market-driven, Deb said only Aishwarya Rai was a quintessential representative of Indian beauty.

Speaking at a design workshop in Agartala, Deb said, “Indian beauty should ideally look like Goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswati. Diana Hayden did not deserve to win the Miss World crown. Actually, it was part of a fixed plan which was hatched keeping in mind the interests of the international market. Aishwarya Rai’s victory was well deserved as she represents the quintessential Indian woman.”

“Indian women did not use cosmetics or shampoo. We washed our hair with ‘methi’ water to prevent hair fall and bathed in mud. Beauty contest organisers are international marketing mafia that tried to capture a market of 125 crore Indians with their move,” Deb said, adding that Indian women no longer win international beauty contests as organisers have already captured the market.

Earlier this month, the chief minister had asserted that internet and satellite are not something new but existed since the Mahabharata era.

"Internet and satellite communication had existed in the days of Mahabharata. How could Sanjaya (the charioteer of King Dhritarashtra) give a detailed account and description to the blind king about the battle of Kurukshetra? It means internet was there, the satellites and that technology was there in this country at that time," he had said.

The BJP leader said that the European nations and the United States may claim that it is their invention, but it is actually India's technology.

