Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh on Sunday called the attack on six African nationals in the Capital a “minor scuffle” that the media was “blowing up”. Singh made his views clear in a series of tweets, saying he “had a detailed discussion with [the] Delhi Police and found that media [is] blowing up minor scuffle as [an] attack on African nationals in Rajpur Khurd.” He added that the motives of the media should be questioned.

Singh’s controversial remarks came on a day when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj took the case rather more seriously, meeting Minster of Home Affairs Rajnath Singh and Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung on the matter. Swaraj said they had assured her that the culprits, who had allegedly attacked six African nationals with cricket bats and iron rods, would be arrested soon and that “a sensitisation campaign would be launched in areas where African nationals live". Rajnath Singh, too, condemned the incident on Twitter, calling for strict action against the perpetrators. Five people were later arrested for the incidents.

African nationals protested in Delhi on Monday against the increasing violence against their community, and called for action from the government. "We want the government’s support as the incidents of attacks on people from African continent are increasing in the city. The Indian government needs to ensure safety of African nationals and act swiftly on such incidents,” a protestor at Jantar Mantar told The Hindu.

In October, 2015, VK Singh had come under fire from the National Commission of Scheduled Castes after he had compared the death of two Dalit children in Faridabad to the stoning of dogs in the street. Singh later insisted a controversy has been created out of “unconnected sentences”.