BJP disappointed at PM's speech in CBI meet

They alleged that he was trying to pressurise the agency against probing corruption cases on the ground that it should not investigate policy issues

BJP today expressed disappointment over Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's speech at a CBI conference and alleged that he was trying to pressurise the agency against probing corruption cases on the ground that it should not investigate policy issues.

"The country is disappointed with the speech of the Prime Minister at the CBI conference yesterday. Instead of assuring that there will be transparency in policy and implementation, he is trying to pressurise CBI against investigating corruption under the garb of policy," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said here.

Referring to the 2G spectrum scam, BJP said the government had given away the limited resources in 2008 at 2001 prices. "This was a case of fraud and not of policy. The government has built in corruption in policy itself," he said.

Javadekar maintained that in the case of Coal block allocations, the government had decided in 2006 that it will auction coal but allocated blocks arbitrarily to private parties.

"These need to be investigated and cannot be protected as policy as this is institutionalisation of corruption in the garb of policy. Moreover, the Prime Minister went ahead and justified corruption by saying when growth happens there is increase in corruption. This is unacceptable," he said.

BJP alleged that the PM's statement is an attempt to bully CBI in public and a "veiled signal" to the judiciary as well.

"We condemn this justification of corruption in the name of policy," Javadekar said.