Tuesday, February 1 2005 10:38 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Amid the controversy surrounding the Banerjee Committee report on Godhra train blaze, the Congress yesterday (Jan 31, 2005) said that the issue should not be politicised as it was a fact-finding mission whose terms of reference were entirely different from the Nanavati Commission.

"This was a fact-finding enquiry by the Railways for the Railways. Justice Banerjee Committee is not a Commission of Inquiry and it does not claim to be one. It was taken care that terms of references of both the probe panels do not collide," Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told a panel discussion on the Banerjee report in New Delhi.

Attacking the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) in a veiled manner for rubbishing the report straightaway, he said, "This is the first report by any external body on the Godhra incident. The need of the hour is to analyse the report. But it was attacked and thrown into the bin. It is like shooting the messenger without reading the message."

He said that the Nanavati-Shah Commission was probing as to who set the train on fire, which in effect pre-supposes that the blaze was sabotage, whereas the Railway Committee was probing how the fire occurred.

Participating in the discussion, former High Court Chief Justice R Sachar questioned the timing of the interim report and accused Justice Banerjee of "playing into the hands of politicians".

"The panel is like a probe by the Commissioner of Railway Safety and the more objectionable part is the interim report. Any honourable judge should have given a full report," he said.