Revisit appointment of CBI director: BJP to govt

<p>The appointment of the new Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director has become the latest bone of contention between the government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to keep the decision in abeyance.

Senior BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley have written a letter to the prime minister, arguing that the select committee of the Rajya Sabha on the Lok Pal and Lok Ayukta Bill, 2011 had recommended that the CBI director be appointed by a collegium comprising the prime minister, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the chief justice of India. The government should have waited for the recommendations to be implemented after the Bill is passed in Parliament in the winter session before making the appointment, the letter further said.

The government has appointed Ranjit Sinha, a 1974-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Bihar cadre and the current director general of the Indo-Tibetan Border Force, as CBI director. Sinha will take charge from Amar Pratap Singh, who retires on November 30.