AMN /
Union Minister V.K. Singh on Thursday created another controversy through his remarks. “If someone throws stones at a dog, the government is not responsible. It was a feud between two families, the matter in under inquiry,” Singh told reporters in reference to the killing of Dalit children in Haryana.
He blamed a family feud for the burning alive of two Dalit children in Haryana and drew an analogy that if someone throws stones at a dog, the government is not responsible.
His comment came after two children were burnt alive while their parents were critically injured when the house of the Dalit family in Haryana’s Faridabad district was set on fire on Tuesday.
“Failure of administration should not be put on government’s head,” he added.
The statement has drawn him major flak across the nation and the Congress has demanded his resignation and that a case be slapped against him under the Prevention of Atrocities on Scheduled Castes Act Section 3 and 4.
“The statement passed by V.K. Singh is demeaning, disparaging, insulting. The inhumane remarks about our Dalit brothers and sisters are derogatory, condemnable and reprehensible. It reflects the anti-Dalit mindset of the Modi government and his ministers,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.
Senior Congress leader Manish Tewari described the dog analogy used by Singh as “preposterous and abominable”.
“…comparing the death of two little children who were burnt alive to possibly the stoning of a dog… what could be more preposterous and abominable than that. This reflects the mindset of the government.
“To recall, the Prime Minister of India made a similar analogy about two years back in an interview to Reuters when he said that if a pup gets crushed under the wheels of a car that needs to be emphasised too. That remark was in the context of the Gujarat pogrom,” he said.
Minister clarifies
VK Singh, however, later clarified his statement was not intended to draw an analogy between the Faridabad incident and the stoning of a dog.
“My statement wasn’t intended 2draw an analogy. My men & I put our lives on the line 4the nation irrespective of caste,creed & religion,” he tweeted.
“As citizens of this gr8 nation v r sensitive but also responsible. Agenda of India is bigger than any single neighborhood or individual,” he said in another tweet.