JHABUA: Hitting back at the BJP for the criticism of the Congress government over the transfer of sniffer dogs and their handlers, a Madhya Pradesh minister Monday said the saffron party had a "dog-like mentality".
The controversial comment by PWD Minister Sajjan Singh Verma came three days after the opposition BJP alleged that the shifting of police dogs and their handlers was part of a "flourishing transfer racket" in the Congress-ruled state.
"Can anyone harbour an enmity against an animal? BJP people said dogs have been transferred. It should have been better had they said that the dog squad has been transferred. This is their mentality, like a dog. So we can't help it," Verma said at a press conference here.
Responding to the Verma's statement, state BJP chief spokesman Dipak Vijayvargiya told PTI from Bhopal that Chief Minister Kamal Nath should take a serious note of the "undemocratic and unparliamentary" language used by his Cabinet colleague.
"This is unbecoming of a minister. They (Congress government) have gone so far in the transfer business that they don't know where to stop. They have gone wild, he said.
In an order issued last Friday by the commandant of the 23rd Battalion of the Madhya Pradesh Police, 46 dogs and their handlers were transferred.
A sniffer dog from Chhindwara, named Duffy, was shifted to the CM's residence here.
Two other sniffer dogs, Renu and Sikandar, were also transferred to the CM's house from Satna and Hoshangabad, respectively.
Following this, MLA and state BJP vice-president Rameshwar Sharma had tweeted, "If in their control, the Congress can even transfer the land and sky."
He later told PTI, "The Congress can do miracles. It transferred dogs. The Kamal Nath government transferred about 50,000 officials and employees in six months."
"Some of the officials were transferred three to four times in this period. A transfer racket is flourishing and posts in government offices are on the sale," he had said.
Another state BJP vice-president Vijesh Lunawat had tweeted, "Wah, the transfer industry of the Kamal Nath government did not spare even dogs."
Several other BJP leaders had too taken potshots at the Congress government over the issue.