Dalit remark row: Rajasthan police to question Ashis Nandy today

New Delhi: Sociologist Ashis Nandy faces police questioning over his controversial comments linking Dalits and to corruption at the Jaipur Literature Festival.

A team of the Rajasthan police will question Nandy in the national capital on Thursday. The sociologist had said that the most corrupt people in the country were Dalits, backward and oppressed classes. But later clarified that he was making an academic argument about corruption being an equaliser and that his comment was misinterpreted.

The police had earlier registered an FIR under section 3(1) of the SC/ST Act, which is non-bailable and invites up to 10-years in jail.

The sociologist had said that the most corrupt people in the country were Dalits, backward and oppressed classes.

Nandy had on Tuesday denied receiving any summons from Rajasthan Police and said that he was ready to be jailed for his comment. "If at 75 I am tried under the atrocities act and convicted then I'll go to jail, I'll not contest it because I have worked for Dalits and adivasis for 45 years and I am not going to take this insult. I will go to jail," he said.

An all-party delegation, comprising leaders of the MNS, the Shiv Sena, the BJP, the RPI and Dalit organisations - under the banner of the Bahujan Samaj Sangharsh Samiti - had submitted a memorandum to police seeking registration of complaint against the author. The delegation also submitted the petition to Divisional Commissioner Ravindra Jadhav.

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