The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Monday dubbed Madhya Pradesh Cabinet Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya's unwarranted remark about the journalist who died under mysterious circumstances as 'inhuman and irrational'.
"I strongly condemn the inhuman, irrational statement made by the minister in Madhya Pradesh. It shows the absurdity and the arrogance of the minister, who is questioning whether journalist is of a higher stature than him. What does he mean by raising such questions?" asked CPI leader D. Raja.
"What sort of governance is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) giving to the people of Madhya Pradesh? What sort of people are occupying the positions of power in the BJP government? These are very serious issues and such acts must not only be condemned by political parties, but one and all," he added.
Raja further said the media is one of the pillars of democracy.
"I don't know how the minister fails to respect the freedom of media," he added.
In what may come as a major embarrassment for the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP Government in Madhya Pradesh, Vijayvargiya yesterday stoked a controversy by reportedly saying - 'Is a journalist bigger than me?'. He was commenting on the journalist's death.
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Vijayvargiya, however, later backtracked and claimed that a joke which he had cracked was taken out of the context.
On Saturday, Akshay Singh suddenly took ill and died in Meghnagar near Jhabua town.
The journalist was rushed to the civil hospital and later to a private hospital, but doctors failed to revive him. From there he was taken to another hospital in nearby Dahod in Gujarat, where he was declared brought dead.