Mumbai: Actor Randeep Hooda has been removed as the ambassador of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS).
Reportedly, the move has been taken after an old video went viral where the actor was seen making a joke on the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. He was seen speaking at an event hosted by the media house, India Today, in 2012.
The CMS Secretariat said that it had become aware of a video clip recently and found 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 organization was unaware of the 2012 video at the time Hooda was appointed as a CMS Ambassador for Migratory Species in February 2020.
Notably, CMS, also known as the Bonn Convention, is a treaty of the United Nations and separate from both the UN Secretariat and the UN Environment Program. CMS was the only entity Hooda for whom served as a brand ambassador. The actor was nominated as the ambassador along with Australian explorer and environmentalist Sacha Dench and British biologist Ian Redmond OBE and had to serve his duties in 2023.
