Tuesday, January 18 2005 15:39 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: Former Railway Minister and senior JD-U (Janata Dal-United) leader Nitish Kumar today (Jan 18, 2005) requested the Election Commission to prohibit the use of the U C Banerjee Committee's report on the Godhra train blaze in any form in the February Assembly polls in the country.

He termed the committee's report on the Godhra train blaze as "politically motivated to give advantage to Railway Minister Laloo Prasad in the Assembly elections."

"It appears that the Banerjee committee report is stage managed at the instance of present Railway Minister. Therefore, in the interest of fair and impartial elections, use of interim report in any form by any political party or candidate ought to be prohibited," Kumar said in a letter faxed to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) T S Krishnamurthy.

Kumar told reporters after distributing a copy of his letter to the CEC, the committee has noted that the inquiry was incomplete and yet it was in a hurry to submit its interim report timed to coincide with Assembly election in three States, particularly Bihar.

"Timing of the report, its content is intriguing. Why else an interim report at this juncture when election is on? It appears stage managed at the instance of present Railway Minister. Therefore, in the interest of fair and impartial election, use of interim report in any form ought to be prohibited," said Kumar, who was Railway Minister in the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) Government during the Godhra train blaze incident in 2002.

The former Railway Minister said that he would personally meet the CEC, who was going to Bihar tomorrow (Jan 19, 2005) to oversee arrangements for the Assembly polls, to request him to ban use of Godhra train blaze report in the polls as it had done during the Gujarat Assembly election in 2002 prohibiting the use of the visuals of the burnt train and other materials likely to create tensions.

Kumar said that the content of the Banerjee committee report was based on "untrue facts" and corroborated the "biased" opinion expressed by Prasad after assuming the charge of Railway Ministry.

"I do not know whether Banerjee has any political inkling. But one thing is crystal clear that the timing of the interim report suggests it is politically motivated," he said.