BJP MP’s discriminatory remarks on South Indians

BJP Member of Parliament, Tarun Vijay was a panelist on the Al Jazeera program to discuss the recent mob violence against African students in Greater Noida. He ended up exposing the deep seated prejudice against the black skin, which runs deep in the subconscious of most Indians.

This is what he said on the program

“If we were racist, why would have… all the entire South – you know, Kerala, Tamil, Andhra, Karnataka – why do we live with them? We have blacks… black people around us. You are denying your own nation, you are denying your own ancestry, you are denying your own history, you are denying your own culture… and you are trying to be good. That’s very bad.”

President of the India-Africa Parliamentary Friendship Group!

Tarun Vijay also happens to be the president of the India-Africa Parliamentary Friendship Group!

He has now said that his statements were misconstrued. “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,” he said, claiming that he never called South Indians “black”.

Asking that the central government should warn its MP is meaningless given the fact that no tall leader, whether it is the PM or the Uttar Pradesh CM (Noida is part of UP) have condemned the ghastly incident on African students. The Indian government has also refused to recognise the mob violence against African students as racial despite a statement from African envoys calling it “xenophobic”. No wonder the African embassy has appealed to the Human Rights tribunal of the UN.