Kejriwal criticises CBI exclusion under RTI

Criticising the decision to exclude CBI from the ambit of RTI, activist Arvind Kejriwal today accused the government of not bringing the agency under an independent Lok Pal to "arm twist" political opponents.

Ahead of the final meeting of the joint drafting committee on the Lok Pal Bill, Kejriwal said it appeared that whenever the government was in trouble, it would send CBI after "politicians like Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati".

"The government is interested in keeping the CBI as a dishonest agency so that it can arm twist opponents and scuttle any investigation against their own people," Kejriwal, who is one of the 10 members on the committee, said.

He also noted that CBI does not deal with security and intelligence and could not be clubbed with agencies such as Intelligence Bureau or RAW. "RTI Act says security and intelligence agencies can be kept out," he said.

About the previous meetings of the Lok Pal drafting committee, he said they had a feeling that the decisions of the government side were "pre-decided".

However, he said, the silver lining was that they were able to hold a country-wide discussions on Lok Pal and its various provisions.