Backing Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the CBI raids on his Principal Secretary, the Trinamool Congress on Wednesday once again attacked the Centre alleging that the investigating agency had become Gujarat Bureau of Investigation (GBI) under the Modi-dispensation. The Government hit back saying corrupt should not be rescued and instead Parliament should be used to strengthen fight against corruption.
Speaking during the Zero Hour, TMC leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay said the raids had “perturbed” them and rejected the Government’s claim that the CBI was an “independent body”. He claimed the agency could not have acted without the Prime Minister’s knowledge as it was working directly under him.
Training his guns on the Prime Minister, Bandyopadhyay said senior Gujarat cadre officers had been deputed in the CBI and one of them “shared” his name with Modi and the agency had turned into “GBI”.
He also spoke about Kejriwal’s claim that the CBI officials were looking for “cricket-oriented” files relating to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and demanded setting up of a joint parliamentary committee to go into various aspect of the agency’s functioning.
Retorting to the TMC’s GBI barb, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said Gujarat is also in India, the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi and Narendra Modi. In reference to the CBI losing its autonomy, Naidu said the TMC leader may be speaking from his experience in the previous UPA Government and that CBI was now fully independent in its functioning.
Insisting that the Delhi CM has not been raided, he said, “No wrong has been done. law is taking its own course. It is not the duty of Parliament to take up such matter.” CBI should be free and need not take any permission, the Minister said.
Dismissing the contention that Kejriwal should have been informed, Naidu said Anna Hazare and Kejriwal had during their movement demanded that CBI need not take anyone’s permission to carry out investigation and welcomed the apex court’s decision to strike down the single directive which mandated that 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 PM in which he had called him a “coward and psychopath”.
“Can any Chief Minister make such a loose commentIJ He is a youngster, a new comer,” Naidu said.