Jaitley accuses Congress of "misusing CBI to suppress opponents"

BJP leader Arun Jaitley today accused the ruling Congress party of misusing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as a political tool against the opposition parties, after the investigation agency decided to withdraw the disproportionate assets case filed against Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Chief of the Samajwadi Party.

"The government is misusing (the) CBI to suppress its opponents, and going easy on cases involving parties that support the Government", Jaitley said here today.

BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar had earlier alleged that the Congress party used the CBI to garner support of other political parties often to secure majority in the Parliament.

"The misuse of the CBI is nothing new. For the Congress, the CBI is their main partner in crime. And with the help of the CBI they have brought many parties into submission and the CBI has also repeatedly changed their stance so that this minority government can be shown as a majority government. This thing is still happening. It is not astonishing if the CBI is being misused. This is the game of the Congress", said Javadekar.

On March 01, 2007, the apex court had ordered a CBI enquiry against Mulayam Singh Yadav, sons Akhilesh Yadav and Prateek Yadav, and daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by an advocate in December 2005.

The Yadavs had challenged the probe and alleged that the PIL was politically motivated.

The ruling Congress party has however defended the CBI by stating that it worked in an impartial and independent manner.

"Be it the matter of Mulayam Singh or anybody else, the CBI works independently. The whole country knows this. Pawan Bansal was a minister from the Congress party, but the CBI did its work honestly here. The CBI is working independently in the matter of Mulayam Singh and it works this way in every matter," said Congress party leader Rashid Alvi.

Commenting on the issue earlier today, leader of Communist Party of India (CPI), D. Raja said that the CBI must explain its stand whenever eyebrows are raised over their objectivity in a particular investigation.

"I do not know how the Congress party deals with the Samajwadi Party. But as far as I am concerned, the apprehensions are about CBI's investigations. These apprehensions may be true, may not be true. But CBI must explain whenever its investigation is questioned or doubted for various reasons," Raja said.

A key ally of the Congress-led UPA government, Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose party provides crucial support to the coalition in parliament, said in April that he was at the mercy of the CBI, which is investigating him for allegedly amassing wealth disproportionate to his income.

The CBI is also investigating similar allegations involving Mayawati, the leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party, on whom the government relies heavily for support in parliament.

The BJP has also alleged that the government has used the threat of the CBI investigation to force Mayawati to back a controversial proposal to open up the country's retail sector to foreign investors, even though she has been on record as being opposed to it.