UP BJP President Keshav Prasad Maurya told reporters that Singh has been relieved of all posts and said “such language has no place in the party”.
BJP has been wooing dalits, a politically crucial community in Uttar Pradesh which goes to the polls early next year, and Singh’s comments have the potential to damage its efforts. The party hopes that it will be able to contain the damage by acting swiftly against him. “He has been relieved of all responsibilities in the party. There is no place for such language in BJP,” Maurya said.
As his remarks drew all-round flak, even from his own party, Singh tried to do some damage control by apologising and claimed it was a “slip of tongue”.
A furious Mayawati, who is a dalit leader, demanded that Singh be expelled and warned the government in the Rajya Sabha that she will not be responsible if people hit the streets. Her party threatened to take legal action against the BJP leader. She was joined by leaders from other parties, including Congress.
Union Minister Arun Jaitley immediately distanced the BJP from Singh’s comments and offered his regret. “It is not right and I condemn the use of such words. I express personal regrets. I associate our dignity with yours and stand with you,” Jaitley said.
Earlier on Wednesday,Congress targeted RSS and BJP in Lok Sabha over attacks on some dalit men in Gujarat for skinning a dead cow, saying the Hindutva organisation was working for “dalit-mukt Bharat” which was “sponsored” by BJP to polarise communities ahead of next year’s assembly polls there. 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.
K Suresh (Cong) raised the issue in Zero Hour during which Congress members remained in the Well during protesting against the incident. 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.
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.
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. Expressing dissatisfaction over the Home Minister’s reply, Congress and TMC members staged a walkout.
Singh, whose speech was disrupted quite often by Congress members, said PM 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.
“No government in India has done so much for the poor and dalits as the Modi government has,” the Home Minister claimed as he spoke about schemes like Jan Dhan and Start-up India aimed at their financial inclusion.
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.
Earlier during the Question Hour, virtually the entire Opposition in Lok Sabha had continuously protested the attacks on dalits in Gujarat by raising slogans, with Congress members raising slogans from the Well. Barring AIADMK, members from all opposition parties were on their feet.