Opposition accuses Modi of using agencies for political vendetta

New Delhi :  Calling the CBI’s booking of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda a result of “Modis political vendetta”, the Congress on Friday warned the Central agencies and their officers of going against their legal mandate to further the interests of their political masters.

Not just the Congress but prominent opposition leaders including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal flayed the Narendra Modi government for using the agencies to harass and intimidate the opposition.

Strongly condemning the CBI booking Hooda and raiding his residences in connection with a land allotment case, Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma said the action coming ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and the bypolls in Haryana, was a clear indication of the Centre using agencies to harass and intimidate political opponents.

“Hooda’s residences have been raided on a day when he is to address a rally for the Jind bypoll. By this the government has given a clear message that it will continue to use the CBI and other central agencies as a tool to intimidate and harass the opposition,” Sharma told the media here.

Referring to similar actions by the Central Bureau of Investigation against other opposition leaders including in West Bengal and Bihar, Sharma said that Modi and the BJP were rattled by their imminent defeat in the Lok Sabha polls and were now resorting to “political vendetta”.

He blamed Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah for the CBI and other agencies losing their credibility,.

Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, many of whose party leaders were arrested and interrogated in chit fund scams by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), also slammed Modi and the BJP.

“Political vendetta continues. BJP and its ‘allies’ comprising multiple government agencies harassing all allies of opposition. From Kolkata to Delhi and beyond,” she said in a series of tweets.

Referring to Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, Mamata Banerjee said nobody was being spared.

“Are they scared, are they desperate?” she asked calling the “headless agency” (CBI) to have become “spineless BJP”.

Replying to her tweets, Kejriwal whose Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) too has been at the receiving end of the CBI, alleged that Modi was fighting the political battle through the enforcement agencies.

“From Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati in UP to Mamata Banerjee in Bengal and AAP in Delhi, Modi-Shah duo has spared no political opponent,” he said.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav dubbed the CBI as “BBI” or “BJP Bureau of Investigation”.

“Whoever joins hands with the BJP gets a clean chit and becomes Raja Harishchandra and those who criticise them are hounded by the agencies. Even my father was not spared, because he is a critic of the RSS and the BJP led Central government,” he tweeted.

Tejashwi alongwith his father and former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and some of his family members is facing a CBI probe in the IRCTC hotels-for-land scam.

 Published on: Jan 25, 2019 at 16:44 IST

IANS