Madhya Pradesh minister Kailash Vijayvargiya made an insensitive comment about a journalist who died while investigating the Vyapam scam
A minister in Madhya Pradesh, skewered for an insensitive comment on a journalist who died while investigating the Vyapam recruitment scam, was unapologetic today as he said: "My remarks were misinterpreted."
Mr Vijayvargiya had said on Saturday, responding to media questions on journalist Akshay Singh's death: "What journalist? Can there be a bigger journalist than me?"
Battling outrage, the minister today met the journalist's family but issued no apology.
Speaking to NDTV, he said: "I said nothing wrong. Those who took out a wrong interpretation of what I said should apologise." Pressed on answers, he snapped at the reporter: "I am a mature politician, I don't know if you are a mature journalist."
Earlier this morning, Mr Vijayvargiya claimed that he had made his controversial remarks "casually, off the record," though he was speaking directly to TV cameras. "No one appreciates more than me what journalists go through while covering a story. On Saturday night, during a casual conversation with an ABP reporter, he said something and I dismissed it - now the off the record conversation is being sensationalized. I don't want to defend myself but I ask journalists - do you think Kailash Vijayvargiya will say something so insensitive?" the minister said today, adding that he was "waiting" for a reply to his question.
Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, who has been demanding a larger investigation into the Vyapam scam and the unusual number of deaths since it surfaced in 2012, tweeted: "Kailash Vijayvargiya's comment on journalists is condemnable. It exposes his ego. He should apologise to journalists."
The journalist, Akshay Singh, is among 35 people to die mysteriously in connection with the scam that involves politicians and bureaucrats allegedly accepting kickbacks in exchange for allowing imposters to take the recruitment exam for government jobs and admission to colleges.
Delhi-based journalist Akshay Singh Akshay Singh died suddenly when he was in Jhabua, speaking to the family of a girl named in the scam. Witness accounts suggest the 38-year-old journalist started frothing at the mouth and collapsed while talking to the girl's father. A doctor had said that he died of a heart attack, but Delhi's AIIMS hospital is now handling a medical investigation into how he died.