Amidst the outcry over his remarks on the Dalit burning issue, Union minister Gen (retd) V.K. Singh was on Sunday greeted with protests and shown black flags by Left Front supporters during a visit to Kolkata.
A group of around 60 protesters waved black flags in front of the Raj Bhavan south gate and shouted slogans of “V.K. Singh go back” a short while before the Minister of State for External Affairs arrived there for a book release.
Police said that 26 demonstrators were arrested following the protest, which took place a short time before the release programme of the book authored by Singh commenced at the West Bengal Governor’s residence.
Earlier, in the morning, Left Front supporters waved black flags and raised slogans against Singh as he arrived at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport.
According to airport sources, Singh’s convoy got stuck on its way to the city due to the demonstration held by around 150 Left Front supporters.
“At around 11.45 a.m., as the Union minister came out of the airport, close to 150 Left Front supporters waved black flags at his convoy and shouted slogans of ‘V.K. Singh go back’,” they said, adding that police intervened to clear the way for the minister’s convoy.
Left Front supporters later burnt an effigy of Singh and demanded his resignation over his alleged anti-Dalit remarks at a protest at Esplanade in central Kolkata, according to a CPI-M state committee member, Niranjan Chatterjee.
That demonstration saw Chatterjee and another state committee member and former minister, Anadi Sahoo, slam the Mamata Banerjee government for not reacting to Singh’s remarks. They further alleged that the absence of a reaction showed that the ruling Trinamool Congress “was supporting the BJP government”.
Singh found himself at the centre of a controversy following comments by him that the Centre cannot be blamed if somebody throws a stone at a dog in connection with the Faridabad Dalit burning incident in which two children were killed.
