‘ Maya, Rahul shedding croc tears’

Facing flak from the Opposition over its leader and Union minister V. K. Singh’s “insensitive” remarks on the killing of two dalit children, the BJP on Friday hit back at Congress vice- president Rahul Gandhi and BSP supremo Mayawati for shedding “crocodile tears” on the “unfortunate” issue. The BJP also accused National Commission for Scheduled Castes chairperson P. L. Punia of acting like a Congress spokesperson. The BJP claimed that the opposition parties were finding it difficult to face the BJP’s developmental agenda and doing politics over recent “unfortunate” incidents.

Mr V. K. Singh’s comments that the Centre cannot be blamed if somebody throws a stone at a dog when speaking in connection with the Faridabad dalit burning incident in which two children were killed, sparked a major political row.

BJP fielded its dalit leader Vijay Sonkar Shastri to deflect criticism and take on Mr Punia over his comments deprecating Mr Singh.

“There are talks that the commission under him ( Punia) does not work and dalits are not getting justice. Can Punia give one example where somebody from the Scheduled Castes has benefited from his work?” Mr Shastri said.

Taking suo motu cognisance of Mr Singh’s controversial comments over the dalit burning issue, the commission issued a notice to the DGP of Uttar Pradesh and SSP of Ghaziabad.

The BJP leader said the killing was not a case of crime targeting dalits, but due to enmity between two families and claimed that local BSP MLA besides the state administration had said so as well.

Asked about criticism by allies like Jitan Ram Manjhi and Ram Vilas Paswan, Mr Shastri noted that Mr Singh had expressed regret.

Taking a dig at the Congress vice- president over his visit to the Faridabad home of the victim family, Mr Shastri said his “dalit prem ( love)” had surfaced again... People like him visit dalits for photo- ops.”