lending credence to the growing speculation over the alliance between the Congress and the JD(U) before the 2014 lok Sabha election, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said that his party has always supported secular forces of country as it is of the firm view that “casteist and communal” forces cannot run the country.
Describing Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as a “good human being”, Shinde told mediapersons at Patna Airport on Tuesday that the secular parties should support each other as the Congress always strengthens secular forces whenever any such situation arises.Shinde’s remarks assumes significance, particularly in view of the fact that four Congress MlAs had supported the Government when Kumar’s confidence motion was put to vote in the State Assembly recently though it was initially thought that the Congress would abstain from voting.
Earlier, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had described Kumar as a secular leader, prompting the CM to respond to the gesture by thanking Singh.“It gives me peace that Singh has called me a secular leader,” the Chief Minister had remarked while accepting greetings from Singh which came just one day after Kumar snapped his 17-year-old ties with the BJP on June 16.
Shinde who stopped for a while at the local airport for his onward journey to Supaul for laying the foundation stone of an SSB recruitment training centre and also inaugurating the construction work of a 552-km-long Indo-Nepal border road, said that the Congress has always strengthened secular forces whenever such a need was felt for this purpose.
“Secular forces should support each other by considering it as their duty as communal forces cannot run the country. Nobody can do the politics in the name of one religion,” the Union Home Minister remarked while making a veiled attack on BJP. Shinde also recalled how Kumar had made special emphasis on the growth of railway infrastructure in his area when he wasRailway Minister during the NDA regime.
Amid all speculation, Congress general secretary and party in-charge for Bihar affairs, CP Joshi is arriving in Patna on June 29 to decide the party’s future course of action in view of the JD (U) splitting away from the NDA.
Bihar Congress Media Cell chief Prem Chandra Mishra said that Joshi will hold meetings with presidents of district Congress and block Congress to elicit their opinions about the consequences in case the party enters into an alliance with the JD(U). He, however, claimed that leaders of both the Congress and the JD (U) are not engaged in any sort of discussion at any level for attempting to forge an alliance between these two parties.