Former BJP MP Tarun Vijay has been cast as a big fat racist after a video went viral where he offers a rather weak defence in an attempt to explain Indians aren't racist. He said: “If we (Indians) were racist, why would we have the entire south? Which is you know... completely Tamil, you know Kerala, you know Karnataka and Andhra. Why do we live with them? We have blacks, black people all around us.”

Now there’s no denying that the former BJP MP was inarticulate and failed to explain India’s syncretic culture to a global audience, creating quite an uproar. However, though the former editor of an RSS weekly might not fit an English news studio panel’s vision of a ‘liberal’, Vijay actually seems to have worked for other marginalised sections of society like OBCs and Dalits.

In fact, in May 2016, he was attacked by a mob for trying to enter a temple with some Dalits in Uttarakhand. Vijay along with Dalit activist leader Daulat Kunwar and others visited the Silgur Devta temple in the remote Punah village which is nearly 180 km from Dehradun.

BJP MP @Tarunvijay injured in an attack by mob while returning from Silgur Devta temple in Dehradun. pic.twitter.com/Gdf1nf7A1t — All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) May 20, 2016

He and activists were pelted with stones as they were exiting the temple. “The (upper caste) villagers of a nearby area had organised a bhandara (feast in honour of local god). The irritated villagers pelted stones when they saw the Dalit crowd coming out of temple and injured all of them,” a police official said.

Vijay, who was a MP then was taken to a military hospital even as the angry locals damaged his car and pushed it into a gorge. Vijay was backing a campaign led by Dalit activists to break centuries old tradition which forbids them to enter 349 temples of the state’s Jaunsar-Bhabar region.

So when we label Vijay a ‘racist’, we’d do well to remember that he’s probably done far more for equality for this country than most of us who rant about everything under the sun on Twitter while quietly accepting the inequities that plague our country.

Tarun Vijay - the story so far

Facing an all-round backlash, especially on social media, the former editor of Panchjanya, a RSS-affiliated weekly, tendered an apology on Twitter. BJP spokesperson Shaina N C said Vijay could have phrased his comments differently.Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said the comments showed the saffron party's tendency to discriminate among people of the country. Vijay claimed that people with African ancestors have been living amicably in Maharashtra and Gujarat.He also said Indians worship black gods and referred to Lord Krishna.

Faced with criticism, he said his words were perhaps not enough to convey what he wanted to say. "Feel bad, really feel sorry, my apologies to those who feel I said different than what I meant."I feel the entire statement was this; we have fought racism and we have people with different colour and culture, and still never had any racism."He, however, claimed that he never called south India as "black".

"I never, never, even in a slip, termed south India as black. 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 tweeted in response to accusations of racism. DMK MP T K S Elangovan said Vijay's comments were funny as not all people in the south India are dark-skinned and cited the example of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.

His party's spokesperson said his comments offered a glimpse of a divide between north India and south India. Congress leader Khushboo said such remarks by the BJP leader were "shocking" and he should have been more careful.The actress-turned-politician noted that he has worked to promote the Tamil culture.

"This is a country which is secular and does not believe in any colour and here is a party which is trying to give one single colour to it. This is absolutely not acceptable," Khushboo said.BJP spokesperson Shaina N C said her party believes in inclusive approach towards every religion, language and culture.

"May be he (Vijay) could have worded it differently... For whatever words (used by Vijay), India continues to be a diverse country," she said.

With inputs from agencies