New Delhi: Returning Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi`s barb that CBI will fight the next election, Union Minister Manish Tewari on Friday wondered whether by CBI he meant his `Communal Bureau of Instigation`.
"CBI, the Communal Bureau of Instigation, which is also referred as BJP, I am sure they will contest the next elections. So therefore, the Chief Minister of Gujarat at times is very candid in his confession. So we welcome his confession," Tewari told reporters here.
Raising the issue of "misuse" of CBI, Modi had in a Bhopal rally early this week said that CBI and not Congress party candidates will be fielded in the next polls.
Tewari, however, said that it had only made evident BJP`s double standards.
"BJP should decide that they have faith in CBI or not. If judgement in Haren Pandya case is in their favour then CBI becomes very good and if judgement is not in their favour, then it becomes Congress Bureau of Investigation.
"(Many) organisations have suffered in last nine years due to BJP`s cheap politics. It is sad if these sort of irresponsible statements come from people who have held responsible offices. BJP needs to introspect on its character and its double standard," the Minister said during a joint press meet with Minister of State for Personnel V Narayanasamy.
Pandya, a former minister of state for home in the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat who had later fallen out with the chief minister, was shot dead on March 26, 2003, in Ahmedabad.
On August 29, 2011, a division bench of Gujarat High Court had slammed CBI for the probe and acquitted all the accused including Asgar Ali from the charge of murdering Pandya. CBI has filed an appeal against the acquittal in Supreme Court.
Narayanasamy, who is incharge of the ministry providing
administrative support to the CBI, said the agency functions independently and without government interference.
"As far as our UPA government is concerned, I made it very clear in the Parliament and also outside that we never use CBI for political reasons. In future also we will not do. CBI is functioning in its domain, the power vested in them. We never interfered in the investigation process of CBI," he said.
To a question related to coal blocks issue and questioning of Congress MP and industrialist Naveen Jindal, Narayanasamy said the agency was free to call anybody for its probe.
"CBI is investigating the case. The inquiry is on against the accused. It is their job to call people and enquire. It is not our job. I am not authorised to speak for them. They are independent authority and doing their job," he said.
Jindal was questioned yesterday in connection with a case of alleged cheating and criminal conspiracy in bagging Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand in 2008.
PTI
