Unfair to ask me to choose my words cautiously: Ashis Nandy

Social psychologist Ashis Nandy today said that he stood by the comments he had made at the Jaipur Literature Festival and said he had apologised to those hurt by it but wouldn’t tender one to those who had used it to score political points.

“No, I don’t feel hounded and frightened because I know if people read the script of what I said, or even see the video they will know that even the statement they are quoting frequently was part of an aggressively pro-Dalit, pro-OBC plea. I did stand by them and I do want to stand by them,” he said in an exclusive interview with CNN-IBN’s Rajdeep Sardesai.

He also pointed out that he wasn’t the only one to make such a statement about corruption being an equaliser in Indian society and in the past other editorials had also made similar points.

“This point has been made by number of persons. I have also made this point in one of my public lectures only a few months ago, where nobody objected, nobody protested to it,” he said.

The author also said that it wasn’t fair of his critics to have asked for him to make a more nuanced argument given that the statement was made at a literary meet.

“So it is unfair to ask me to choose words cautiously. I was not speaking in Parliament or in a court of law,” he said.

He also condemned various groups targetting people who expressed their views.

“I fear for it because we have become afraid of ideas. People will be talking more and more in banalities, and I think that is a great pity that our public life with be to that extent impoverish,” Nandy said, adding that he wouldn’t consider tempering his speeches in the future.