The war of words over the CBI raids on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar intensified on Wednesday with the BJP accusing both the Congress and the AAP of using diversionary tactics to “cover up” corruption even as the Congress and the AAP demanded Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s resignation over alleged “financial irregularities” in DDCA during his tenure as its president. The Congress also pitched for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the DDCA irregularities.
Reacting to the development, Jaitley said the State Government and the party which is in the dock for having supported corruption and having interfered in the probe in this manner cannot deflect the issue without any basis. “I can reply if they (AAP) can tell me specific issue. I cannot reply to vague allegations,” Jaitley said.
In the lok Sabha, insisting that the Delhi CM has not been raided, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu said, “No wrong has been done. law is taking its own course. It is not the duty of Parliament to take up such matter.” The CBI should be free and need not take any permission, the Minister said.
Dismissing the contention that Kejriwal should have been informed, Naidu said it was the Anna Hazare movement of which Kejriwal was a part and parcel, and he had demanded that the CBI need not take any one’s permission to carry out investigation and welcomed Supreme Court’s decision to struck down the single directive which mandated that the CBI intimate Government while acting against an officer of Joint Secretary or above.
Taking a dig at the AAP leader, the Minister said he disapproved his remarks against the Prime Minister in which he had called him a “coward and psychopath”. “Can any Chief Minister make such a loose commentIJ He is a youngster, a newcomer,” Naidu said.
The Congress claimed that a committee constituted by the Delhi Government has found “gross financial irregularities” in the DDCA during that period. Hitting back at the Congress, the BJP accused the Congress and the AAP of forming an alliance of like-minded parties to “protect” the corrupt. “These are simply diversionary tactics of the Congress to cover up corruption cases in which its leaders are involved. It is a baseless charge. The Congress has formed an alliance of like-minded parties to protect the corrupt,” BJP secretary Shrikant Sharma said.
Already stung by National Herald case following which party chief Sonia Gandhi will have to appear before a court on Saturday, the Congress fielded its top parliamentary leaders to launch the attack on Jaitley.
Flanked by leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, party leader in the lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, and senior spokesman Ajay Maken sought setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee to go into the issue.
“Congress demands enquiry through a JPC, Arun Jaitley step down, failing which the Prime Minister should sack him,” Maken said at a press conference at Parliament. Maken said four persons in the DDCA, who have been “known for their proximity” to Jaitley have been named as “officers in default” by the Registrar of Companies in his order of August last year. “How can a fair probe into the issue is possible as long as Jaitley is the Finance Minister, who is also the Corporate Affairs Minister,” he wondered.
Maken noted that virtually all enforcement authorities ED, IT, Revenue intelligence, Serious Fraud Investigation Office directly report to him. Maken said the Registrar of Companies have “proved” the charges of irregularities after he had complained to then Corporate Affairs Minister M Veerappa Moily, who had ordered the ROC enquiry.
He said the investigation by the SFIO had found that the Reconstruction of the Ferozshah Kotla stadium was carried out between 2002 and 2007 which saw an escalation of costs by Rs 90 crore. He said the initial budget was Rs 24 crore but eventually it went up to Rs 114 crore. Maken also hit hard at the Arvind Kejriwal Government raising question as to why it was sitting on the report for one month.