By IANS
Patna : Railway Minister Lalu Prasad advised Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to immediately snap ties with communal forces like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) if he intended to be a “secular leader”.
The comments of Lalu Prasad, who is the president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), came after an undercover operation, conducted by Tehelka magazine, caught Hindu activists saying on camera that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had “sanctioned” the 2002 riots in which more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed.
Lalu Prasad also targeted senior BJP leader and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani, saying, “Since Modi enjoys the patronage of Advani, latter cannot escape culpability for the mass murders.”
The RJD chief said it was high time for Nitish Kumar to review his relationship with the BJP and he should snap ties with the party directly involved in the killing of hundreds of innocent Muslims in Gujarat.
“Nitish Kumar should prove whether he is with the communal BJP or not,” Lalu Prasad said.
The railway minister said that the incidents were a “blot on the Indian democracy” and that the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the then home minister Advani and home ministry officials were “equally guilty” for the carnage.
Lalu Prasad urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Shivraj Patil to instruct authorities to initiate criminal charges against the two leaders (Modi and Advani) immediately, and demanded that the two be sent to jail.
Lalu Prasad said that the Tehelka sting operation has showed that the post-Godhra violence in Gujarat was “not a spontaneous reaction” but a “genocide” planned and executed by the top functionaries of the Sangh Parivar and state authorities “with the sanction” of Chief Minister Narendra Modi.