VK Singh's statement represents 'anti-Dalit' mindset of NDA Govt.: Shinde

Former union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Saturday said that General (retired) V.K. Singh's statement represents 'anti-Dalit' mindset of the NDA Government.

"If a government representative like him (Minister of State for External Affairs) is making such statements, it means that the government is also carrying the same ideology. We will fight against this anti-Dalit government," said Shinde.

Singh courted controversy when he said that it has become customary for the Centre to be blamed for everything negative that was happening in the country.

"This incident has nothing to with the central government. This is the failure of state government. If someone throws stones at a dog, the government is not responsible," Singh had said on the sidelines of an event in Ghaziabad some days ago.

However, he had apologised and said it was not his intention to hurt anbody's sentiments.

"I will be very clear on this that in case, because of this mixing up of two things, which someone else has done, if somebody's feelings have been hurt, I am apologising for it. Because some people have created a totally different picture all together which was never there. I had no intention of hurting anybody. Because of this imaginative linking of somebody if somebody's feelings have been hurt, I apolosize whole-heartedly," Singh said.

"Let me be very clear and clarify in that manner. There are two separate remarks all together. Somebody has mixed them up and try to portray something which was not there. What I said was that government is not responsible for every local incident that happens. And after that when the person(journalist) insisted that no it is still government's fault, I said that tomorrow if a dog is walking and you throw a stone, is the government responsible," he added.