Former BJP MP Tarun Vijay’s comments in the light of the attack on Nigerians in Greater Noida left a few appalled, a few horrified, and many others exasperated. Social media was flooded with criticism on Vijay’s comments defending Indians against charges of racism after he said – “If we were racist, why would we have all the entire south…Tamil, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra… why do we live with them? We have black people around us.”
After an apology on Twitter, Vijay on Sunday wrote an opinion piece in the Hindustan Times defending his comments. In his article, Vijay writes that “witnessing such anger against me is akin to watching my own death helplessly.”
Vijay writes that in his effort to counter aspersions on Indians being termed racist, he wanted to bring focus on the country’s “fabric of togetherness.” It, however, ended up sounding the “opposite.”
After apologising for the fact that his comments turned counter-productive, Vijay writes a long tirade against the cultural phenomenon driven by “fair and lovely” advertisements and India’s long tryst with caste-based discrimination.
Vijay then goes on to offer a solution for what he calls the “malaise” plaguing Indian society. “How do we treat this malaise? We shouldn’t go into denial mode, but accept there is a problem and look for a solution,” he writes.
Vijay concludes by resorting to the same argument that he used in his original comment:
The fact that the country’s inhabitants belong to diverse cultural backgrounds is not proof that there is acceptance of this diversity. As Nityanand Jayaraman, a well-known environmental activist from Tamil Nadu, said: Vijay’s logic is like saying that the country is not sexist because roughly 50 percent of it comprises of women.
Terming the outrage over his comments as a “media sensation,” Vijay also has a piece of advice:
After (re)arguing that caste-based violence is not racism, Vijay offers his gratitude to those who stood by him through the “trashy” times. “Their incessant calls, tweets and Facebook support have assured me that whatever trash comes out in the media, Tamil annai never deserts her children,” Vijay writes in the publication.
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