Jitan Ram Manjhi urges PM Narendra Modi to initiate action against V K Singh

PATNA: BJP ally Hindustani Awam Morcha's (HAM) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi today criticised Union Minister V K Singh's dog remark and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to initiate action against him.

"If V K Singh has compared the incident of burning of Dalits with (burning of) dogs, the Prime Minister should take cognisance of it and initiate appropriate action against him," Manjhi said in a statement.

Manjhi, a former Bihar chief minister and a prominent dalit leader, sought "stringent" action for the remark "So that no leader dare to make such a statement on incident of atrocities on dalits."

He said he was deeply hurt by the Faridabad incident where four members of a dalit family were set on fire resulting in the death of two children.

Manjhi said taking birth in any caste or a house was not in the control of an individual. "If somebody has taken birth in a dalit family so what's his/her fault? What kind of crime is in being a dalit?", he said in the statement.

Union Minister of State and another BJP ally Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) chief Upendra Kushwaha has also advised leaders to avoid giving such controversial statements.

Singh's remark had also provided opportunities to grand secular alliance leaders Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad to attack BJP-led NDA in Bihar, where assembly polls are on.