Former BJP parliamentarian Tarun Vijay’s racist remark on “South Indians” has sparked outrage on social media.
News channel Al Jazeera’s online show The Stream invited him to discuss the recent attacks on African students in Greater Noida. During this show, he made the controversial remark, “If we were racist, why would we have the entire south…Tamil, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra…why do we live with them? We have black people around us.”
The video has gone viral and it triggered outrage on social media. Soon after, he gave his clarification on Twitter, “We have fought racism and we have people with different colour and culture still never had any racism. My words perhaps were not enough to convey this.”
He mentioned India’s complex culture where people worshipped the dark-skinned god Krishna. He tweeted, “Feel bad, really feel sorry, my apologies to those who feel i said different than what I meant.”
Mywords perhaps were not enough to convey this.Feel bad,really feel sorry, my apologies to those who feel i said different than what I meant https://t.co/I7MddEJk5W
— Tarun Vijay (@Tarunvijay) April 7, 2017
I feel the entire statement sas this- we have fought racism and we have people with different colour and culture still never had any racism.
— Tarun Vijay (@Tarunvijay) April 7, 2017
The topic was discussed following a group of Nigerian students were beat in Greater Noida last month by the residents who were furious after a local boy’s death of a suspected drug overdose. The locals claimed the Africans supplied the drugs to the deceased.
After the incident, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday said an independent enquiry was set to investigate the matter. The African Group Head of Missions accredited to India termed the recent attack “xenophobic” and “racial”.
