JD-U defends Bansal; Left demands resignation

Even as all the opposition parties are demanding Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal’s resignation, the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) has come to his defence with the party president Sharad Yadav rejecting punishment for a crime done by his (Bansal) nephew.

“If a relative of a political leader is involved in corruption, then what is the fault of that leader? I have known Pawan Bansal for a long time. He has been in Parliament for a long time. What has he to do with anything if his nephew is taking bribe," Yadav told reporters.

“The person who offered bribe and the one who accepted it both have been arrested,” he contrasting his response with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ally BJP, Yadav said he would leave the choice of carrying on as a minister or quitting to Bansal.

“It should be left to him (Bansal),” Yadav told Deccan Herald, asked if the minister should take moral responsibility for the arrest of the minister’s nephew and a railway board member.  The Left parties, on the other hand, wanted the railway minister to take moral responsibility and resign despite not thinking that the minister had direct involvement in the bribe incident.