Nitish slams Laloo’s Godhra probe, says first see Railway Act

The statement followed a truce worked out by the Government with the Opposition this morning to prevent a replay of yesterday’s disruptions of House proceedings. The compromise emerged when Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad met Leader of Opposition L.K. Advani and others today.

Speaker Somnath Chatterjee allowed Nitish to make the statement, which was already approved by him. As RJD members — including its two Ministers of State Prem Gupta and Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav — tried to heckle him, the Speaker sternly told them to behave. ‘‘You can not override me. I will be forced to take unpleasant action,’’ he said.

Backed by a belligerent Opposition, Nitish took exception to Gupta and Yadav joining the verbal war. ‘‘Would the tainted ministers tell us what to speak?’’ he asked.

Nitish said, although, a probe was mandatory in case of a mishap, it could not be conducted when a commission of inquiry had been set up. He said: ‘‘The Railway Minister should first go through the Railway Act thoroughly and understand the working of railways.’’

Referring to the charge that he did not visit Godhra, the JD(U) leader said there was no tradition of a Railway minister visiting scenes of violence. None of the ministers before him had done it.

As for officials, he said senior Railway officials from Baroda had visited Godhra and submitted two reports. He demanded that their reports be tabled in the House.

Nitish maintained that he had been monitoring the situation while in the Rail Bhavan when the Godhra carnage took place. He denied that Parliament was kept in the dark about the report of the Ahmedabad Forensic Science Laboratory and added that all facts related to the carnage had been tabled in Parliament in March 2003.

He said as far as the action on report was concerned, it was the job of the SHO concerned and not the Railways minister.