New Delhi: NDA (National Democratic Alliance) today (July 14, 2004) hit back at the Railway Minister Laloo Prasad accusing him of "politicising" the Godhra carnage issue by ordering a departmental inquiry into the incident in Gujarat to "create suspicion in the minds of a particular section of society."

Within hours of Prasad ordering the inquiry, his predecessor and JDU (Janata Dal-United) leader Nitish Kumar told that whatever the Railway Minister has done was "nothing but a political statement" and said his action of "imputing motives" was "totally wrong and irresponsible."

"It is easy to become Railway Minister but it is difficult to understand the functioning of the Ministry," Kumar said sarcastically hitting out at Prasad for the manner in which the Railway Minister was functioning.

Kumar's comments at the daily briefing of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) came soon after the Railway Minister replied to the discussion on the Railway Budget and sought to impute motives on Kumar as also former Minister of State, Digvijay Singh, for failing to visit Godhra soon after the incident. Singh was also present at the briefing.