Sunday, June 5 2005 14:46 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: Railway Minister Laloo Prasad today (Jun 5, 2005) welcomed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president L K Advani's utterances at the mausoleum of Pakistan's founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah stating even if belated, his (Advani) words were from the core of his heart and criticised the VHP, RSS for their adverse response to Advani's comment.

"Advani's praise of Jinnah is his natural reaction towards Pakistan's founder. All his earlier utterances against Pakistan seems to be artificial," Laloo said at a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) function in Patna.

Taking a pot-shot at the hardliner Hindu organisations like Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for protesting Advani's statement on Jinnah, the RJD supremo said "they (the VHP and RSS) seem to have forgotten that Advani is a Pakistani by birth and how can he speak lie at his birthplace."

He said Advani, who is an accused in the murder of Jinnah, seems to have realised his 'mistakes' and now is speaking factually correct things.

"I welcome Advani's statement on Jinnah though belated," he said and advised Advani to stand firm on his statement and not take a u-turn in view of protest from the saffron brigade.

Laloo said he and his party had from the very beginning been championing the cause of better relationship between India and Pakistan, but the 'communal forces led by BJP' had always tried to create roadblocks by sometimes queering the cricket pitch to prevent Pakistani players from playing in India.

Laloo was addressing a party function to mark the 'Sampoorna Kranti divas', the day on which Loknayak Jayprakash Narayan had in 1974 given a call for total revolution at historic Gandhi Maidan in Patna.