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Rediff.com  » News » Lalu can't benefit from Godhra report: Paswan

Lalu can't benefit from Godhra report: Paswan

Source: PTI
Last updated on: January 18, 2005 22:38 IST
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Lok Janshakti Party chief and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Tuesday said the U C Banerjee Committee's report on the Godhra train fire will not benefit the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal in next month's assembly election in Bihar.

Speaking to reporters in Patna, Paswan said: "The integrity of a judge [U C Banerjee] can't be questioned and therefore it [the report] can't be politicised. The committee's findings can't be wrong."

Also see: Godhra train fire accidental: Report

Over 50 people, most of them Ram devotees returning from Ayodhya, were killed when two bogies of the Sabarmati Express train caught fire near the Godhra railway station in February 2002.

The incident sparked anti-Muslim riots in large parts of Gujarat leaving over thousand people dead.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies have alleged the Banerjee Committee report is aimed at next month's election in Bihar.

Paswan, whose LJP is locked in a bitter political battle with the RJD in Bihar, however, does not agree with this view. "The report will in no way reap electoral benefit to Lalu Prasad's RJD in Bihar," he said.

The BJP and Janata Dal-United have termed the Banerjee Committee's report as "a political stunt" by Lalu, who, they have alleged, wants to deflect focus from the RJD's misrule in Bihar.

Also see: Terror link to Godhra carnage: Investigating officer

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