The opposition party demanded constitution of a joint parliamentary committee to go into the incident but Home Minister Rajnath Singh strongly refuted its charges and cited figures to claim that cases of atrocities against dalits have declined in the state since 2001 when Narendra Modi took over as chief minister, and commended the state government for its "swift and effective" action.
Referring to large-scale protests by dalits following the incident and "emergency-like" situation in parts of the BJP-ruled state, he said they have lost faith in the government and attributed the violence to RSS and upper caste lobby, inviting protests from the treasury benches.
Many dalits have tried to commit suicide as they have no faith in the state government, the Congress member alleged.
"Violence is RSS agenda. RSS is trying for dalit-mukt Bharat. The government totally failed. It was a BJP-sponsored attack. What is going on? Is this Gujarat model," he said.
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In his reply, Singh termed the incident "very unfortunate" and said he condemned it in strongest words,after he sought to turn the tables on Congress asserting that the cases of atrocities rose during its rule in Gujarat earlier.
He said dalits had faced lot of atrocities in the state during 1991-99. Incidentally, BJP had formed government under Keshubhai Patel there in 1995 and ruled for most of the period till 2001 when Modi took over.
The Anandiben Patel government acted swiftly and arrested accused and provided treatment and compensation to the victims, he said, adding that nine persons have been arrested.
Singh, whose speech was disrupted quite often by Congress
members, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was "very sad and hurt" after he came to know of the details of the incident on his return from foreign tour on July 12.
The state government, the Minister said, was planning to have a special court for the trial in the case. "I congratulate the state government for its swift and effective action," he said.
As Congress members continued to disrupt him off and on, he insisted that he will stand the whole day to complete his reply and sought to hit back at the opposition party by making a passing reference to cases of atrocities on dalits in Haryana when Congress was in power there.
"I am not talking about atrocities against dalits in Haryana. I have all details. You seemed to have made up your mind to walk out," he said before reeling out figures of such cases during the UPA government to make his point.
"I request all political parties to commit themselves to eradication of such atrocities," the Home Minister said.
It was an irony that such incidents targeting the weaker section were happening so many years after the country's independence. "This is a social problem. It is a social evil," Singh said.
Expressing dissatisfaction with his reply, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said whenever they raised an issue and sought the government's response, it would recount the history of 65-70 years.
immediately demanded that the Speaker should delete the references to "baap dada".
"Today they said 80 per cent of our 'baap' was in Congress. I, Sadananda Gowda, Sushma Swaraj, Rajnath Singh-- none of us had ever smelled of Congress. I feel sad that somebody talks about our parents when they are not here to defend themselves. Such references should be deleted from records," Naidu said.
Speaking on the issue, expelled RJD MP Pappu Yadav said nothing was above humanity and animals cannot be worshipped at the cost of humans. "I can kill 1 lakh cows to save a human," he said. Sumedhanand Saraswti (BJP) objected to Yadav's comments, saying it would hurt people's feelings.