Minister dismisses Lalu's demand for probe into Atal's health

Ballia: Lalu Prasad is not taken seriously by anyone, Union minister Radha Mohan Singh said today, rejecting the RJD supremo's demand to probe the health condition of former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee.

The Agriculture Minister said Lalu is the leader of an opposition party and "has to oppose NDA on everything".

"He (Lalu) is not taken seriously by anyone...Even Bihar Chief minister Nitish Kumar does not take him seriously," he said.

RJD is a junior alliance partner of JD(U) headed by Kumar in Bihar.

His reply came in response to a question by reporters here on Lalu's allegation in Rae Bareli yesterday that Vajpayee has been put on intoxicants and sidelined from politics.

To a question on Nitish Kumar's closeness with BJP, Singh, who belongs to Bihar, said his future course of actions can only be guessed. He did not elaborate.

To a question, the minister said BJP does not discriminate on communal lines and does not believe in encouraging anyone on the basis of religion.

The agriculture minister claimed that the "unnatural alliance" between SP and Congress has only helped BJP in these elections.

Attacking Akhilesh Yadav, he said his ministry wrote ten letters for setting up 21 new 'krishi vigyan kendras' but none came up because of the "wrong stance" of the UP government.

On the black money issue, he said be it Mayawati or Congress President Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra, no one will be spared if found guilty.