There should be no politicking over the deaths of Dalit children, says Ram Vilas Paswan.
Union minister General VK Singh's
controversial remark has caused a ripple in poll-bound Bihar, which has a chunk of Dalit population. Not only did it draw fire from Bihar's anti-BJP alliance, but General Singh's ally and cabinet colleague Ram Vilas Paswan too, spoke up, asking him to refrain from making such statements.
The government cannot be held responsible for the murder of the two Dalit children in Haryana, General Singh had said. Then he had added, "If someone throws stones at a dog, the government is not responsible."
As the remark drew barbs from the opposition, Mr Paswan, a Dalit leader from Bihar, said, "I don't descend to such low talk, have never done it with any issue".
He said he hadn't seen the statement, "If there is any attempt to divide the society I am totally against it. I believe there should be no ' bayaanbaazi' (politicking) over it," Mr Paswan said.
On Wednesday, Mr Paswan had blamed the BJP government of Haryana after two children were burnt to death when their house was set on fire, allegedly by members of an upper caste. "The state government is totally answerable. It is a law and order issue," he had said.
The BJP 's opponents in Bihar, Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar, both took to Twitter to condemn VK Singh's statement.
"What VK Singh has said is the BJP's core ideology. Whoever abuses dalits and backwards the most, the RSS and the BJP looks at them as big leaders," said a Hindi tweet by Mr Prasad.
"We are wondering how such people are continuing as ministers, these are irresponsible and insensitive statements. We don't need to make it an election issue, the BJP are doing it themselves," said Ajay Alok, spokesperson of the JD(U).
In Bihar, the BJP has traditionally drawn more support from the upper castes, but it has joined hands with Dalit leaders like Ram Vilas Paswan and Hindustan Awam Morcha (Secular) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi for the assembly elections.
In August, the NDA appointed a Dalit leader from the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh, Ram Nath Kovind, as the Governor of Bihar to make inroads into Mr Kumar's base among the state's Dalits and Mahadalits.