New Delhi: Nine Opposition leaders have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging misuse of central agencies like Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) to frame their leaders, while no action was taken against corrupt politicians who joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Those who wrote to Modi are Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief Chandrasekhar Rao, Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) chief Farooq Abdullah, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal, RJD chairperson Tejashwi Yadav and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
Significantly, none from Congress was a signatory to the letter.
They were of the opinion that most politicians booked, arrested, raided or interrogated by investigative agencies in the BJP regime since 2014 belonged to the Opposition, while they went slow on cases against Opposition politicians who shifted allegiance to BJP.
“For example, former Congress member and current Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was probed by the CBI and the ED in 2014 and 2015 over the Saradha chit fund scam. However, the case didn’t progress after he joined the BJP. Similarly, former TMC leaders Suvendu Adhikari and Mukul Roy were under ED and CBI scanner in the Narada sting operation, but cases against them didn’t progress after they joined the BJP ahead of Assembly polls in West Bengal. There are many such examples, including that of Narayan Rane of Maharashtra,” the leaders pointed out.
They further alleged that Governors across the country were acting in violation of the constitutional provisions and frequently hindering governance of states.
“They are wilfully undermining democratically elected state governments and choosing instead to obstruct governance as per their whims and fancies. Be it the Governor of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Punjab, Telangana or the Lt Governor of Delhi, the Governors have become the face of the widening rift between the Centre and states run by the non-BJP governments and threaten the spirit of cooperative federalism, which the states continue to nurture in spite of a lack of expression by the Centre,” they wrote.
