After sparking a furore by demanding a judicial inquiry into the killing of militants in Delhi's Batla House, Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh on Monday said he had never called the encounter "fake", but felt that the issue of insecurity among minorities should be addressed.
"I am not saying Batla Nagar encounter was fake and that the martyrdom of the police officer was fake, but I feel minorities are feeling insecure," Amar Singh, whose inclusion in the National Integration Council by the United Progressive Alliance government drew flak from the Bharatiya Janata Party, said on the sidelines of the NIC meet.
Minorities were feeling a sense of insecurity in Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and other parts of the country, he told reporters.
Asked about Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's criticism over non-inclusion of "terrorism" on the agenda for the NIC meet, Amar Singh said, "Extremism was included in the agenda. I am not bothered about articulation. I am bothered about hard facts and apprehension in the mind of minorities that need to be addressed."
When asked to comment on Modi's charge that the UPA government was indulging in vote-bank politics, Amar Singh said, "Modi has polarised Gujarat for winning elections there."
"The politics of hatred and contempt against one community is not good," the SP general secretary said.
On the series of bomb blasts that rocked the country, Amar Singh said, "This is the failure of the intelligence."
Asked about National Security Adviser M K Narayanan's remark on Bajrang Dal and Students Islamic Movement of India, Amar Singh said, "Narayanan is an officer and not a public figure."
"He does not have to face the public. That is why he has said these things. I have regards for Narayanan," he said.
Narayanan has suggested a ban on Bajrang Dal may not be sustainable and refused to term the Sangh Parivar outfit and SIMI as two sides of the same coin.