Left 'speechless' over VK Singh's dog remark: Omar Abdullah

SRINAGAR: Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said he was left "speechless" by the controversial remarks made by Union Minister Gen (retd) VK Singh on the killing of two Dalit children in Faridabad.

"I'm #speechless," Omar wrote on twitter.com in response to Singh's comments about the Dalit killings.

Union Minister of state for External Affairs Singh while trying to shield the government from blame in the Faridabad Dalit burning incident, today said the "government cannot be held responsible if somebody stones a dog".

"See, the thing is, never associate local incidents with the Central government (sarkar). There is an inquiry going on. There was a dispute between families. The dispute...how did it turn out...where did the administration fail, after these it come to the Centre.

"For everything...like if somebody throws a stone at a dog, then the government is responsible...it is not like that," Singh said in Ghaziabad, the constituency he represents in Parliament, while referring to the burning alive of a Dalit family allegedly by upper caste Rajputs in Haryana's Faridabad which left two toddlers dead on the intervening night of October 19-20.

The former Army Singh, however, later clarified his statement was not intended to draw an analogy between the Faridabad incident and stoning of a dog.

"It does not matter who or what the political affiliations are, the perpetrators have to be dealt with without mercy. I also appeal to the media not to deliberately twist my words out of context. What I have said and continue to say is very clear, and there is no ambiguity about it," he said.

"My statement wasn't intended 2draw an analogy. My men & I put our lives on the line 4 the nation irrespective of caste, creed & religion," he later tweeted.