Mr. Nandi, now prove what you said or back off

It seems it is a season of making controversial statements and offering unsolicited advice in India (especially to females about what they should or shouldn't do). In the middle of all other events like fatwas and protests, noted author Mr. Ashis Nandi made a very strange statement at the Jaipur Literature Festival. He suggested that the ranks of the corrupt in India were made up entirely of those from the Other Backward Classes, the Scheduled Castes,  and the Schedule Tribes. As expected, this statement generated an array of reactions from different sections of society some supporting Mr. Nandy and many ridiculing his statement. All these reactions are as expected but I want to point the attention of readers to the statement which he made. I wonder what data and logic he used to come to this conclusion. It sounds very ridiculous and rather than protesting against it or trying to get him arrested, people should prove him wrong and force him to take his statement back.

There is no question that Mr. Nandy has the right to express his opinion and I am not in favor of arresting him or making his life difficult just for making this remark. Any statement like this gets condemned in India, and different sections of society register their reactions differently, but these things never get discussed properly, and freely in an open environment. I think we need to do this. Rather than threatening people, or attacking movie theaters, people should debate over these issues. If it is wrong then prove it wrong, ask for an apology, and make that person accept their mistake, not by force or threats but by logic and rational arguments.

Corruption is very rampant in all sections of public life in India. One can not generalize that people belonging to any particular caste or religion are more involved in corruption compared to others. Outlook magazine published one table (see reference 1) where they listed the caste or religion of people involved in different corruption scandals that were reported in the last decade or so. One can see that there is a lot of variety there, people from all sections of society are part of this great crime. This chart itself is enough to prove Mr. Nandy wrong and if he is a sensible guy he will accept his mistake. There is nothing wrong with making mistakes. We all do it. We all mess up some things at some stage in our lives, but after realizing the mistake, not correcting it is an even bigger mistake. I hope Mr. Nandy won't make this second mistake which will be worse than his first one.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)

References:
1. Data by Outlok