Chief Election Commissioner T S Krishnamurthy on Wednesday said it will be unfortunate if political parties raked up the Justice U C Banerjee report on the Godhra incident during election campaigning in Bihar, Jharkhand and Haryana.
Justice Banerjee in his interim report on Monday had described the Godhra incident as 'accidental'. The Gujarat government and the state's police, however, maintain there was a terror link to the train fire.
Also see: Godhra train fire accidental: Report
Over 50 people, most of them devotees of Ram returning from Ayodhya, were killed when two bogies of the Sabarmati Express train caught fire near the Godhra railway station in February 2002.
The incident sparked anti-Muslim riots in large parts of Gujarat leaving over a thousand people dead.
When Krishnamurthy's attention was drawn to reports of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav blaming the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh for post-Godhra riots in Gujarat, Krishnamurthy said: "We have to verify the authenticity of the statement. But the commission will take action if religion is used for political exploitation [in election campaigns]."
Also see: Terror link in Godhra carnage: Investigating officer
In his election rallies in Gaya and Aurangabad districts on Tuesday, Lalu had referred to the Justice U C Banerjee report and alleged that the BJP and Sangh Parivar were deeply involved in spreading mis-information about the train tragedy.
"We are certainly disturbed and quite unhappy if such things are used for personal acrimony and vendetta," he said and appealed to all political parties to concentrate on issues of development and good governance.
"Political parties must learn good democracy and good governance," he said.
