Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday cautioned Union Ministers VK Singh and Kiren Rijiju for their controversial statements and said they couldn’t get away by saying they were misinterpreted. He urged his BJP colleagues to take “extra caution” while making statements and avoid giving room for interpretations.
“We can’t get away by saying that statements were misinterpreted or twisted. We need to be extra careful while putting forth our views,” Rajnath said.
The Home Minister’s snub came a day after Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh made a controversial statement that the “Centre cannot be blamed if somebody throws a stone at a dog” in connection with the killing of two Dalit children in Faridabad. MoS for Home Rijiju too had drawn flak on Wednesday after he said that he agreed with a former Delhi l-G who had once remarked that North Indians “take pride in and enjoy” breaking rules.
“I feel that as leaders of the ruling party, we must all be extra cautious while making any statement,” the Home Minister said.
Rajnath said Ministers and BJP leaders must ensure that their statements were reflected in proper perspective and no wrong message is communicated through them. “We should also ensure that there is no possibility of our statements to be interpreted in the wrong way or send an incorrect message,” he said.
The Home Minister said his Ministerial colleagues had already given clarification on their statement and matters should come to end.
Meanwhile, hitting back at BJP over its jibe of return of “jungle raj” in Bihar if the Grand Secular Alliance is voted to power in the state, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar questioned whether there was ‘Mangal raj’ in Haryana where two children of a Dalit family were allegedly burnt to death.
“They (BJP leaders) did nothing and now they are trying to create a kind of fear of jungle raj in the state. There is rule of law in Bihar and it will remain so ... Dalit children were burnt to death in Haryana. Is it a Mangal Raj (in Haryana)IJ” Kumar asked while addressing a public meeting in Minapur constituency in Muzaffarpur district on Monday.
BJP ally Jitan Ram Manjhi, the former Bihar Chief Minister and Mahadalit leader, was also unsparing in his criticism of VK Singh’s remark, saying it showed his “feudal” mindset. Manjhi urged BJP leadership to take stringent action against VK Singh for his “anti-Dalit” remarks.
..