Social scientist Ashis Nandy stirred up a row at Jaipur Literature Festival Saturday, saying most of the corrupt in the country were people belongs to other backwards classes (OBC), the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the Scheduled Tribes (STs).
"It will be an undignified, even vulgar statement. But it is a fact that most of the corrupt come from the OBC, the Scheduled Castes and now increasingly the STs and as long as it is the case, the Indian republic will survive," Nandy said at a session titled "Republic of Ideas".
"I give you an example, one of the state we can list out of the corruption, it is the West Bengal, when CPM (Communist Party of India- Marxist) was there. I want to propose that in the last hundred years no body from the OBCs, SCs and STs has come into power there, it is an absolutely clean state," he further stated.
Nandy's remarks soon invited strong disagreement from the audiences as well as from the panel.
Anchor and Journalist Ashutosh, who was among the panellists, said, "This is the classical case, that how the elite calls of India perceive the Dalists and backwards classes. This is the most bizarre statement I have heard."
Leaders of the OBC and the SC and ST communities here threatened to lodge a police complaint against Nandy and demanded his expulsion from the event.
However, Nandy later clarified that what he meant was that most of the people getting caught in corruption charges belongs to marginalized sections, as they don't have the means to save themselves unlike people from upper castes.
--With Agencies Inputs--
|
|
Comments:
