Jaipur: Leading political psychologist, scholar and social scientist Ashis Nandy clarified yesterday that he did not mean to hurt the sentiments of the country’s disempowered groups with his comment on the equalising force of corruption and that the scourge was rampant among the backward and Dalit communities as well.
“I do believe that a zero corruption society will be despotic society. I also said that if people like Richard Sorabjee and I want to be corrupt, I shall possibly send his son to Harvard and give him a fellowship and he can send my daughter to Oxford,” Nandy told the media following protests by Dalit groups.
“No one will think it as corruption. Indeed it will look like supporting talent. But when Dalits, tribals and the OBCs are corrupt, it looks very corrupt indeed. However, this second corruption equalises. It gives them access to top their entitlements As long as this equation persists, I have hope for the republic,” he said.
Nandy said he was sorry that he had been misunderstood. “As should be clear, there was neither any intention nor any attempt to hurt any community,” he said.
The scholar said he had been supporting the cause of the marginalised and dispossessed during the last 40 years of his academic and intellectual life.
Earlier in the day, Nandy had caused a stir at a panel discourse, “Republic of Ideas” when he said: “It will be an undignified and vulgar statement but the fact is that most of the corrupt come from the OBC, the Scheduled castes and now increasingly STs. As long as it was the case, the Indian republic would survive.”
“I will give an example. The state of least corruption is West Bengal. In the last 100 years, nobody from the backward classes and the SC and ST groups have come anywhere near power in West Bengal. It is an absolutely clean state,” Nandy said.
Later, Nandy set the record straight saying that he had meant to endorse fellow panelist Tarun Tejpal’s statement that “corruption in India was an equalising force” after Dalit activists descended on the venue to protest Nandy’s remarks.
Late in the evening, Dalit leader Kirorilal Meena filed an FIR against Nandy at the Ashok Nagar police station. This was despite festival producer Sanjoy K Roy explaining the import of Nandy’s comments to Meena and other Dalit leaders.
“They have clarified their position and have understood that it was a misunderstanding. Controversies are easily created. Please be responsible,” Roy said.
A trained clinical psychologist and sociologist, Nandy works cover a variety of topics like politics, public conscience and dialogues of civilisations. Nandy has been honoured with the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize and has been named as one of top 100 public intellectuals by the Carnegie Foreign Policy magazine. IANS
