TMC leader Sudip calls CBI ‘Gujarat Bureau of Investigation’

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu replied that Gujarat was a part of India and great people from Mahatma Gandhi to Narendra Modi hailed from there.

TMC member Sudip Bandyopadhyay speaks in the Lok Sabha in New Delhi on Wednesday. (Source: PTI)

The bond between Trinamool Congress and AAP chief ministers Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal continued to reflect in Parliament Wednesday, with members of their parties protesting together in the well of the Lok Sabha and walking out over the CBI raid on the office of Kejriwal’s principal secretary.

Taking up the matter during zero hour, Trinamool Congress floor leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay said, “Earlier people were saying that CBI means Congress Bureau of Investigation; now it has been changed to GBI, Gujarat Bureau of Investigation. The director and additional director of CBI belong to Gujarat cadre. It may kindly be investigated whether they have been very recently appointed from Gujarat cadre of IPS or not. I would also like to know whether there is any official with the name Mr Modi… This signifies how CBI is being misused.”.

He rejected the government claim that the CBI was an independent body. “The CBI is totally under the prime minister’s control. It cannot ever happen that the CBI is operating and doing all these things without the knowledge of the prime minister.” He sought an investigation into the “role of the CBI”.

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Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu replied that Gujarat was a part of India and great people from Mahatma Gandhi to Narendra Modi hailed from there. This triggered protests from the Opposition benches.

Naidu said, “We cannot have a running commentary on the functioning of CBI. Do not come to the rescue of the corrupt. This is not the duty of Parliament… No wrong has been done. Law is taking its own course.” The CBI, he maintained, was free and therefore, did not need to take any permission for doing its job.

Bandyopadhyay had contended the chief minister ought to have been informed of the impending raid. Naidu responded this would not have been in accordance with law.

Naidu took exception to tweets by Kejriwal against the Prime Minister – “coward and psychopath” – and asked: “Can any chief minister make such a loose comment?”

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Amid some confusion, Ratna De announced the Trinamool was staging a walkout. The party’s MPs then trooped out.

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