Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Tarun Vijay on Monday told The Hindu that his statement about “black South Indians” was an “indefensible slip” on his part. He said he was trying to protect the image of India in the face of allegations of racism, but could not find the “right words” to convey his point. He had made the remarks during an interview with Al Jazeera.

“The word ‘black’, as you watch the video, was not used in reference to Tamil Nadu or any other State – it was, like we say in Hindi – people of all colours are around us and we all live together,” he said. “I misspoke and for that I feel great regret.”

When asked what he had meant by “we” when he said “we have been living with black people from Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, Vijay said, “We includes all of us. It means people from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and Tawang to Okha. I was responding to a person who was persistently attempting to prove India is a bad country for Africans.” Vijay said his answer to the other panelist was not to “defame his motherland”.

He said he had apologised on Twitter as soon as he realised his mistake the day after the interview, when journalists began approaching him for his reaction. “In many parts of the nation, we have different people, in colour and never, ever did we have any discrimination against them...My words, perhaps, were not enough to convey this,” he had said.

Vijay was part of a panel discussing the alleged racist attacks against African nationals in Greater Noida when he made the statement.