The funeral of one of the Indian soldiers killed by Pakistanis at LoC on Monday night
Patna: 'What's so special about the funeral of soldiers? It keeps happening': after Bihar minister Bhim Singh was forced to apologise for these insensitive remarks, the ruling Janata Dal-United on Friday rejected calls for his resignation.
"I have rectified my mistake, expressed my regrets, apologized to the nation...I don't have anything more to say," said Bhim Singh, a cabinet minister in the Nitish Kumar government, today.
Sources say the Janata Dal-United may not give in to opposition demands to remove Bhim Singh, who belongs to the extreme backward castes, a major support base for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
The party today called it a closed chapter.
"Opposition parties can do all the politics they want but this issue is over for us," said Janata Dal spokesman Sanjay Singh.
On Thursday, Bhim Singh had said: "People join the army to die."
He was responding to criticism that not a single minister had received the bodies of the jawans killed by Pakistanis at the Line of Control earlier this week and most ministers had missed their funeral in various parts of Bihar.
The Chief Minister quickly intervened to demand an apology, and later came out with his own apology: "I apologise and express regret for my colleague's remarks. The whole nation is indebted to the martyrs." Mr Kumar was himself criticised for not flying back to Patna for the funerals.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) said an apology is not enough, the minister should resign.
"If Nitish Kumar doesn't sack the minister, the people will teach his government a lesson," said RJD chief Lalu Yadav.
The BJP, which was evicted from the Bihar government in June after a 17-year partnership was called off by Nitish Kumar's party, said the nation would not "neither forgive nor forget" the minister's comments.