BJP leader Tarun Vijay is making it to the headlines on Friday for his infamous racist statement in an Al Jazeera debate on the attack on Nigerian students by a mob in a Greater Noida mall. While Twitter is buzzing with sharp condemnation and criticism of Vijay’s words and analogies; tracking Vijay’s political trajectory says otherwise about the man. Interestingly, the former BJP MP has been conferred with prestigious Thirukkural Thuthar (Ambassador of Tamil epic class Thirukkural by Thiruvalluvar) award in the year 2014. He received this award for taking up the issues of Tamil, Thiruvalluvar, and Thirukkural like no one else did. Of his remarkable contributions, he has been the prime force behind the initiative to install the statue of the saint-poet Thiruvalluvar on the banks of the Ganga in Hardwar.
Earlier, he went on a ‘kural yatra’ across Tamil Nadu and even called for the compulsory learning of Thirukural in schools of northern India. He even presented a portrait of Thiruvalluvar to Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister MM Syed once.
It was Tarun Vijay who condemned the atrocities and discrimination against the Dalits. He also backed the Dalit campaign leaders who claimed their right to enter the temples, especially five popular shrines in the Chakrata region. In fact, he also faced attacks while supporting the move.
Considering that Vijay’s remarks on South Indian are completely contradictory from his actions, it is best left to our readers to comprehend on how they want to perceive the incident.
