New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi has made a blistering attack on the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre for indulging in vendetta politics and accused it of targeting the Opposition leaders for settling political scores.
The Gandhi scion alleged that the Narendra Modi government had misused the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to target RJD chief and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav in the fodder scam cases.
The central government has been using the CBI to "intimidate and harass the opposition leaders" one by one, he said.
"The BJP government uses the CBI to target key opposition politicians to intimidate and harass them,'' he said.
"Now, a news report reveals how the CBI was pressured to file a case against @laluprasadrjd, ignoring the advice of its own legal team. Who will Modiji (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) target next?" Gandhi said in a tweet adding a hashtag #VendettaPolitics.
The BJP Govt uses the CBI to target key opposition politicians to intimidate and harass them.
Now, a news report reveals how the CBI was pressured to file a case against @laluprasadrjd, ignoring the advice of its own legal team.
Who will Modi ji target next?#VendettaPolitics https://t.co/cPxzBgcf2K
— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) March 16, 2018
Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala later said that his party unequivocally condemns any act of political vendetta indulged by the Modi government.
"Now that the BJP has only a few months left in power, it should count its days and be ready to face the people's wrath," he said, adding that "denigrating the credibility of institutions by misusing them to target political opponents is the sole agenda of the Modi government".
"Media reports suggest that the ‘Directorate of Prosecution', which is the CBI's legal wing, and the Economic Offences Division of the CBI have different opinions on filing an FIR in a case against former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad.
"This chasm within the CBI has surfaced when the Modi government has left no stone unturned to file series of cases against their political opponents. CBI clearly has become a ‘Captive Bureau of Investigation' in the hands of the Modi government," he added.
He said that BJP has unleashed the state machinery on Congress leaders like Virbhadhra Singh, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, P Chidambaram, Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot.
"All have been prime targets of the BJP in recent times. All these instances indicate a definite pattern to target political opponents," he added.
(With Agency inputs)
