Patna,(BiharTimes): That Janata Dal (United) national president and NDA convenor, Sharad Yadav, so stoutly defended the Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, came as a surprise because, otherwise, he leaves no opportunity go to criticize the Congress party. But what is more shocking is that chief minister, Nitish Kumar, has not spoken a word on the issue though he is always among the first to flay any ‘wrong’ committed in the ministry he had held in the Vajpayee government.

The stand of Sharad and Nitish is in total contrast to the BJP, which has gone on warpath and demanding the immediate resignation, rather than dismissal of Bansal.

Sharad said “if any relative of a political leader is involved in corruption then what is the fault of that leader? As a parliamentarian, I have known Bansal for a long time. What has he to do with his nephew taking bribe?”

It is true that it is the CBI, which arrested Bansal’s nephew and thus showed that the investigative agency got free hand in nabbing such a close relative of the Railway Minister. So the Janata Dal (United) does not want to unnecessary target the Congress-led UPA.

But if the Janata Dal (United) leaders are showing their softness towards the Congress why is it that the party spokesman, Neeraj Kumar, and Rajya Sabha MP, Sabir Ali, went on to demand resignation of Bansal. This goes to suggest that either the party, as a whole, is not united or the leaders have not properly conveyed their own stand to the lower functionaries. This is not the first time that such a situation arose in the party.

Of late, Nitish has remained silent on the issue of corruption in the UPA government though he has sometimes criticized it on other issues. Even during the Adhikar Rally in New Delhi and National Executive meeting of his party on March 17 and April 14 respectively he did not say anything on the host of issues on which the BJP has been criticizing the Manmohan Singh government. Nitish either raised the issue of special status category for Bihar or raised the demand of secular NDA candidate for the post of prime minister.

Now it has come as a further embarrassment for the BJP as Sharad has come out openly in favour of a Congress leader when he is facing pressure from all sides.