 "Stop 'politicising' & drop V K Singh issue: Govt to Opposition")
The government on Monday appealed to the opposition to stop politicising the row over Minister of State for External Affairs Gen. (retd.) V K Singh and said that the matter was now over since the latter has already apologised for his controversial statement following the murder of two Dalit children.
"This issue is being repeated and escalated unnecessarily as he (Singh) has re-iterated time and again that he in no way wanted to hurt or insult any section of the society with his statement. But we can't help it if people want to keep this issue alive for political reasons," Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told ANI here.
Meanwhile, the Congress, led by party vice-president Rahul Gandhi protested against V K Singh outside the Parliament today and demanded his resignation.
Rahul was joined by senior Congress leaders Anand Sharma, Mallikarjun Kharge and Ghulam Nabi Azad demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should sack the Union Minister.
Speaking to reporters outside Parliament after the protest demanding Singh's ouster, Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said that Singh is being "traumatised" for a statement that he has not made.
"Rahulji wakes up suddenly and starts some programme. V K Singh has not made any such statement," he told reporters here.
Rudy said that Singh respects the Constitution and held that he had not said anything what was being attributed to him.
"Rahulji wants to give this issue a political colour. It is unfortunate that a statement not made by someone is attributed to a minister. He is traumatised for that. This is not correct," Rudy said.
On October 22, General (retd.) Singh was asked to comment on the incident in which two Dalit children were burnt alive in Haryana and he responded saying, "If someone throws stones at some dogs, will the Prime Minister be held accountable", which raised a furore.