PM should apologise for V K Singh's dog remark: Congress

New Delhi, Oct 23: Congress today demanded immediate sacking of Union Minister V K Singh for his dog remark on the Dalit killings in Faridabad and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should apologise for the controversial remarks of his minister.

Former Union Minister Selja alleged that the way incidents were happening in Haryana it reflected a pattern and showed "anti-dalit mentality" of the BJP, RSS, Haryana government as also the Centre. She said at the AICC briefing that what was surprising that the Prime Minister has not spoken a word on Singh's dog remark.

She said the "failure" of the Prime Minister to take action against any minister who have made controversial statements to fan forces of hate and violence showed how much sympathy he has for the oppressed including the dalits.

Yesterday, Union Minister V K Singh kicked up a huge political row when he tried to shield the government from blame in the Faridabad Dalit burning incident, saying the "government cannot be held responsible if somebody stones a dog".

"For everything...like if somebody throws a stone at a dog, then the government is responsible...it is not like that," Singh said in Ghaziabad, the constituency he represents in Parliament, while referring to the burning alive of a Dalit family allegedly by upper caste Rajputs in Haryana's Faridabad which left two toddlers dead on the intervening night of October 19-20.

Selja, who hails from Haryana, was also harsh on the state Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar for dubbing the incident at Faridabad as an individual incident. "We condemn the statement of the Chief Minister. It is not a one off incident and Haryana has witnessed a series of such incidents", she said.

PTI