The Congress and Trinamool Congress have criticised remarks made by Minister of State for External Affairs (retired) general V.K. Singh on Monday evening, as he accompanied the remains of 39 Indians who were killed by ISIS.
Singh had claimed that the victims had arrived in Iraq illegally as they were not found to have been registered with any Indian embassy in the region. When asked by reporters about the compensation demanded by the victims' families, Singh retorted that distributing compensation was not like giving away “biscuits” or a “game of football.”
Congress' communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala tweeted Singh's remarks were similar to “rubbing salt into the wounds”. Derek O'Brien of the Trinamool Congress referred to Singh as “General Foot in Mouth mantri” in a tweet.
Singh, a former chief of the Indian Army, is no stranger to controversy. In 2012, he filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the then UPA government over a dispute over the term of his tenure; he was the first sitting service chief to take a government to court.
He joined the BJP shortly before the 2014 elections and was elected to Parliament. In October 2015, he was heavily criticised over remarks made after the death of two dalit children in a caste clash in Faridabad, Haryana. Singh had then claimed the Centre cannot be blamed if somebody throws a stone at a dog.
In April 2015, he had referred to a section of the media as “presstitutes” in a tweet after being criticised for claiming that visiting the Pakistani High Commission was more exciting than evacuating refugees from Yemen. The tweet still remains on Singh's timeline.