Modi govt behaving like Congress, gagging voices of opponents, says Sisodia after CBI raids

By Debobrat Ghose and Naresh Sharma (video) The Delhi government on Tuesday evening strongly condemned the CBI raid conducted in the office of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and termed the action as ‘vendetta politics’. Delhi’s deputy CM Manish Sisodia alleged that the NDA government at the Centre has been functioning exactly like its predecessor Congress party by using CBI as a tool to threaten its political opponents and gag voices. Sisodia said, “I openly challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi and ask him if he has any evidence of corruption against any department in Delhi government, do let us know and we’ll provide all documents and files that’s required for the investigation. But, we won’t tolerate that under false pretext the CBI will raid the CM’s office. It’s clear that the Centre has been trying to prevent the Delhi government from working by taking resort to the CBI as a tool. There is an undeclared emergency in the country.” Sisodia on the allegations against Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar: [caption id=“attachment_2546586” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A file photo of deputy CM of Delhi Manish Sisodia with CM Arvind Kejriwal. PTI[/caption] “The Centre says that there are old charges of corruption against Rajendra Kumar, when he was in the education department. If, it’s so, why did the CBI conduct raids in the CM’s office and seized all the recent files related to the CM? Why the CBI didn’t raid the education department? I’m not questioning what the CBI did. It’s the job of the CBI to take action against corruption cases. I want to ask them if at all there were corruption charges against Kumar, why did the CBI maintain silence for so long and no action was taken against him?” Here are a few of the allegations made by Sisodia: • CBI raided Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s office. • The agency seized the recent files of the CM - the files those were signed on Monday; files kept aside to be signed today (Tuesday); letters meant for communication and affidavits meant to be presented in the court today. • Why the CBI blocked entry into the CM’s office that has nothing to do with Rajendra Kumar? • Why the staff of CM prevented from entering CM’s office? • Why CBI didn’t conduct raid in the education department, where Rajendra Kumar worked as a secretary and alleged to have done corruption there? • How could the CBI conduct raid in CM’s office and seize documents, when there was no charges of corruption against Kejriwal? • Why Delhi government wasn’t informed about the action initiated by the CBI? Why CM wasn’t informed about Kumar’s corruption, if at all there was any? • Bring evidence of corruption against me or CM Kejriwal or even a department peon, action will be taken. It was the AAP government that sacked its minister on charges of corruption. No other government does so. We’ve a clear policy that if some one found guilty of corruption, send that person to jail. But, we warn don’t try to get into CM’s office or any other department by using false charges and mala fide intentions. Both the Congress and the BJP are on the same page as far as using the CBI to create hurdles against their opponents," remarked deputy CM. “At the end of the day long raid, when the CBI failed to get any evidence, the Modi-government said that ‘we should mind our language’ (use proper language). I ask them to mind their ways and actions. Agar woh apne karmo ke liye maafi maangenge, to hum apne shabdon ke liye maafi maang lenge (If they apologize for their actions, we’ll apologize for the words we used),” added Sisodia. Speaking to the Firstpost, Arunoday Prakash, media advisor to deputy CM alleged, “At 10 am, the CBI prevented me from entering the CM’s office. The entrance to the CM’s chamber was blocked. If they had to raid Rajendra Kumar’s office, they should have blocked and sealed that particular entry and not that of the CM. It clearly shows CBI’s intention to get an access to the files of the CM.” Earlier, during the day, responding to Kejriwal’s comment, Union Parliamentary Minister Venkaiah Naidu said, “It has become fashion for Delhi Chief Minister to quarrel with Central Government and to take Prime Minister’s name for everything. Prime Minister has nothing to do with this. There is a law, there is a Constitution and law has to take its own course.” The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in its website had welcomed the Supreme Court’s judgment that mentioned, “CBI can investigate corruption cases without waiting for consent from the government”. It was on the hearing of a PIL filed by Prashant Bhushan in 2003. In response to a query by Firstpost on AAP’s reaction to the CBI raid, the AAP leader and spokesperson Raghav Chadha said, “Why the CBI raided Delhi CM’s office against whom there’s not a single charge of corruption? If, the CBI has been functioning so transparently, and without any directions from the Centre, why no raid was conducted till date on Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan or Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje against whom there are severe charges of corruption? It clearly speaks of the Centre’s vindictive politics.” A quick look of the day’s episode: 1. CBI raided the office of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal at the third floor of Delhi Secretariat in the early Tuesday morning and sealed it. 2. CBI said the raid wasn’t conducted on Arvind Kejriwal’s office but it was in the office of Principal Secretary to CM Rajendra Kumar. The raid has nothing to do with the CM. The raid was conducted in 14 places. 3. Rajendra Kumar is a 1989 batch IAS officer and an IIT-Delhi alumnus. He was appointed as PS in February. Earlier, he was secretary in Department of Urban Development and handled transportation and power sectors. 4. There are allegations that Rajendra Kumar had apparently provided benefits to a few private firms. The Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) also registered case against Kumar. 5. A senior bureaucrat and former member-secretary Delhi Dialogue Ashish Joshi had written to Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) chief MK Meena against Kumar, accusing the latter of allegedly indulging in corruption. Joshi had also asked for a probe into Kumar’s role when he was with education, IT and health departments. Joshi in his complaint alleged that Kumar, as director of Education (from May, 2002 to February, 2005) and later Secretary (IT), Secretary (Health) and Commissioner (VAT), had allegedly set up various companies to award work orders of departments without tenders which caused “financial loss” to the city’s government. He further alleged that Kumar had formed a company — Endeavors Systems Private Ltd along with some persons. In 2007, he became secretary (IT) in Government of NCT of Delhi. During this period, he got this company empanelled with PSU - ICSIL (Intelligent Communication Systems India Ltd.) a joint venture of Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL),a Government of India enterprise, and Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC), an undertaking of Delhi government. 6. Immediately, after CBI conducted the raid, Kejriwal tweeted calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi “Modi is coward and Psychopath”.