PATNA: A day after his cabinet colleague Jayant Sinha felicitated eight men held guilty of murdering a meat trader in the name of cow protection in neighbouring
Jharkhand, union minister and BJP’s Nawada MP Giriraj Singh landed himself in a similar controversy on Saturday after he visited
Nawada district Jail and met leaders of
Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) who have been arrested and jailed few days back on the charges of flaring up communal tension.
His meeting with the jailed Hindu outfit leaders lasted for 30 minutes during which the union minister inquired about their health and families.
After the meeting, he criticised the state government and district administration, accusing them of falsely implicating the Hindu outfits leaders and sending them to jail.
"It is unfortunate the way Jitu Ji and Kailash Ji have been framed. When tension arose during Ram Navami in 2017, they worked to restore peace in the area. They did the same work when an idol of Goddess Durga was vandalised in Akbarpur (in Bihar’s Nawada district)," Singh told reporters while coming out of the jail.
The union minister further accused the Nitish Kumar-led state government of having a mindset of suppressing Hindus for any type of communal disturbances. “It is very unfortunate to see that the state government feels that communal harmony will be maintained only if they suppress Hindus. I request the state government and the society to let go of this kind of perception,” Singh said.
Earlier on July 3, Bajrang Dal’s district convenor Jitendra Pratap was arrested for his alleged involvement in the communal riots in 2017. On July 4, Pratap’s supporters protested his arrest and took to the streets, which led to the arrest of other five people.
Singh also paid a visit to the family of a man accused in Nawada clashes that took place in March this year. After meeting the family, Singh said the accused persons maintained peace at the time of crises in the region. He urged the district administration to conduct a thorough investigation in the matter and called for speedy trial.
Taking strong exception to Singh’s remark about “Hindus being suppressed by the administration in Bihar,” JD(U) national secretary general K C Tyagi in Delhi said, “Be it Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian, they all are safer in
Bihar than any other part of the country. Such things increase tension in society.”