The BJP today lashed out at the UPA Government’s decision to set up a high-level committee to inquire into the Godhra incident, calling it an ‘‘unashamed act directly intended to help the accused who had resorted to the heinous and barbaric crime of killing innocent kar sevaks by setting Sabarmati Express on fire’’.At a press conference, BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley said the move is ‘‘a challenge to the rule of law and an interference with the course of justice’’. Asked if they planned to legally challenge the move, he said: ‘‘I am politically challenging it today.’’Jaitley said there was no need for a fresh inquiry into the incident as the Nanavati-Shah Commission was already looking into the case. Jaitley took exception to one of the terms of reference of the committee under Justice U.C. Banerjee, ‘‘to ascertain why the said train, including S6 coach, was overcrowded with passengers, many of whom were without reservations and if their behaviour in any manner contributed to the fire’’. He said the term was ‘‘loaded and based on the premise that the behaviour of the kar sevaks led to the burning of Coach S6 of the Sabarmati Express’’. It also amounted to ‘‘vengeful trivialisation of the incident’’, he added.Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav had said the terms of reference of the Nanavati Committee — ‘‘to inquire into the facts, circumstances and the course of events and incidents that led to the setting of fire to some coaches of the Sabarmati Express’’ — is equally loaded. The phrase ‘‘setting on fire’’ bolsters the claim that outsiders set fire to the coach though forensic reports indicate it was set on fire from inside, he had said.
