Sunday, June 26 2005 19:08 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Dhanbad (Jharkhand): Senior Janata Dal United (JDU) leader Nitish Kumar today (Jun 26, 2005) said the Arjun Munda Government in Jharkhand should 'honestly' implement the suggestions of senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha about good governance.

Though Arjun Munda must heed to the advise of a senior leader like Yashwant Sinha and implement it 'honestly', such type of suggestions and comments should be made within party forum, the former Railway Minister observed here.

The senior JDU leader, who advised the Chief Minister to curb extra expenditure of the Government so that it could "look different from a Congress ruled State," said before airing grievances in public one can discuss things "within the house," apparently referring to Sinha's comments against the Munda Government which raised hackles of the BJP leadership.

Kumar came here to inaugurate the first national convention of the students' wing of his party.

Embarrassed over Sinha's recent surprise attack on Munda Government, the central leadership of BJP on Friday (June 24, 2005) sought to discipline the former Union Minister by asking him not to raise issues through media even as Sinha declared that he would not leave the party.

"... Sinha is advised that if he has to raise any of these subjects, he should do so within the party forum and not through the media," party spokesman Arun Jaitley had said to reporters in Delhi.

The spokesman had said that in Delhi that Sinha told the party his intentions were to highlight some subjects to improve the performance of the party's Government in Jharkhand.

"I want to make it clear that I am in BJP and I will continue to be in BJP," Sinha had stated later in Ranchi.

Kumar said that the creation of Jharkhand was preceded by social tension. "Now it is our priority to remove it, (any misgiving)" he said while reiterating that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government must espouse a different culture from the ones ruled by Congress.

Pointing out that two of ministers were in the State cabinet, Kumar said they (the two Ministers) would try to sort out the lapses if there was any fault in the working style of Government.

"Our responsibility has increased as people of Jharkhand had reposed faith in the NDA," he said.

Regarding the recent controversy over BJP President L K Advani's comments about Pakistan's founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah during his visit to the neighbouring state, Kumar said he regretted that even some of the BJP leaders could not 'understand' Advani's opinion about Jinnah.

Interestingly Sinha was among some others who had termed Advani's remarks on Jinnah as unnecessary. Kumar held the Congress party "equally responsible" for partition of the country.

Justifying his views on this matter he said JDU's alliance was with the BJP and not with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and so he did not "care about them" (RSS).