Monday, June 6 2005 18:09 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: Senior JDU (Janata Dal United) leader Nitish Kumar today (Jun 6, 2005) strongly supported BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) president L K Advani's remarks that Pakistan's founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah was ''secular'' saying his (Advani's) statement was ''true'' and in a particular context and there was no point protesting it.

''I salute Advani for giving such a courageous statement...He has uttered factually correct thing in a particular context quoting from his speech and there is no point raising protest over it'', Kumar told reporters in Patna.

Stating that he totally agreed with what Advani had said on Jinnah in Pakistan, Kumar said Jinnah in his speech had praise all religion and similar was the spirit of speech of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru too.

Kumar said partition of the Country was unfortunate, but once it had happened everybody should accept the fact that now Pakistan was a reality and raising controversy over something without properly understanding the 'entire facts' was not justified, he said without naming the protestors-- VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) and RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh).

The JDU leader saw Advani's statement on Jinnah as part of ''churning up process of historical facts'' in the sub-continent and said protest over it from some quarters was natural in the transition phase.

On RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) President Laloo Prasad welcoming Advani's statement,

Kumar who is a known bete-noire of Prasad, said, '' He is doing so to keep his future option of alligning with BJP open. When the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) partners Congress and Left are protesting over the Advani statement, Prasad holds a contrary view.

This reflects that he is keeping his option of tie up with the BJP open, in case his differences with the Congress and Left reached a breaking point''.