Former BJP MP Tarun Vijay stirred controversy on Friday after he said that Indians were not racists because they “lived with south Indians” and people of other skin colours and cultures.
Speaking to Al Jazeera in the aftermath of violent attacks on Africans in Noida, which many interpreted as racist in nature, Vijay said, “If we were racists, why would we have, all the entire south, which is complete… you know, Tamil, Kerala and Andhra… why do we live with them? Black people are (also) around us.”
Many have interpreted Vijay’s comment as a racist attack on South Indians.
Bjp#TarunVijay's statement syng racism ds not exist inIndia as SouthIndians r black yet accptd is shocking..So wat if v r black? V r INDIANS
— khushbusundar (@khushsundar) April 7, 2017
Thank you Sri Tarun Vijay. Us South Indians are proud to be black. Also, much thanks for your compassion.
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) April 7, 2017
Others said that they were surprised to see such a comment from Vijay who had launched Students and Youth for Thiruvalluvar campaign. In 2015, he went on a ‘kural yatra’ across Tamil Nadu and even called for the compulsory learning of Thirukural in schools of northern India
How odd for Tarun Vijay to make that remark. One of the few (only?) BJP leader from n. India who knows/promotes Tamil.
— Sreenivasan Jain (@SreenivasanJain) April 7, 2017
Slamming @Tarunvijay for calling South Indians "black" is one thing, but no North Indian has done more for Thiruvalluvar's legacy than him.
— churumuri (@churumuri) April 7, 2017
Considering all the work that @Tarunvijay has put in to popularise the works of Thiruvalluvar outside TN these remarks are surprising
— Nistula Hebbar (@nistula) April 7, 2017
The former MP though has apologized in a series of tweets, saying that he was misunderstood. He said that his sentence came out wrong and that he did not intend to be racist.
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
Watch what I said- we have all people of all colour, and person condemning India was being addressed.Never said what is being interpreted https://t.co/bkmVQBgm0P
— Tarun Vijay (@Tarunvijay) April 7, 2017
I have Tamil, Bengali, Telugu in my family-worked with commitment for Tamil culture, without any politics, collectively with all. https://t.co/QJUjm9XZW2
— Tarun Vijay (@Tarunvijay) April 7, 2017
I can die but how can I ridicule my own culture,my own people and my own nation?Think before you misinterpret my badly framed sentence. Yes https://t.co/fyxJQuP3mI
— Tarun Vijay (@Tarunvijay) April 7, 2017
And, I never , never, even in a slip, termed south india as black. have patience to watch the show before reacting angrily. https://t.co/fyxJQuP3mI
— Tarun Vijay (@Tarunvijay) April 7, 2017
DMK's TKS Elangovan made a weird comment stating that Karunanidhi is fair and so was Jayalalithaa.
Funny;not all ppl in Kerala,Karnataka & TN are black.Our leader Dr.Kalaignar is fair,Jayalalithaa was fair: TKS Elangovan,DMK on @Tarunvijay pic.twitter.com/Nxbv7ozgWa
— ANI (@ANI_news) April 7, 2017