Egg on govt face after CBI raids Stalin

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other top ministers such as finance minister P Chidambaram,found themselves on the backfoot and in an unprecedented move,publicly distanced themselves from the CBI action even as TV channels showed visuals of the CBI search on at Stalin’s house.

The raid was believed to be part of a statewide operation to trace luxury imported cars which had evaded duty to the tune of crores of rupees. Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi,a film producer,had reportedly bought one such SUV.

“You all know the sequence of events. This is a case of political vendetta,” Stalin,who is widely seen as the political heir to DMK chief M Karunanidhi,told reporters.

Finance minister P Chidambaram,who won the Sivaganga seat following the alliance with the DMK,was among the first to publicly voice disapproval of the raids. “I strongly disapprove of the CBI action. It is bound to be misunderstood,” he said,adding that he had conveyed his feelings to V Narayanasamy,the minister in charge of CBI.

However,sources said the file on the subject originated in the finance ministry as it was a case relating to evasion of duty and handled by the DRI.

Prime Minister Singh too publicly distanced himself from the development. “We are all upset at these events. The government has no role in this,that I am sure of. We will find out the details. This should not have happened. The timing of the raid is most unfortunate,” he told reporters.

Others including parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath and telecom minister Kapil Sibal and minister of state Rajiv Shukla too jumped in to criticise the CBI action.

Behind the scenes,sources said top Congress leaders made phone calls to their DMK counterparts and emphasised that directions had not been given to the CBI and the agency had acted on its own.

The PM as well as Congress president Sonia Gandhi are believed to have spoken to the DMK chief. Sources said V Narayanasamy spoke to CBI chief Ranjit Sinha,got facts of the case and conveyed them to Karunanidhi’s daughter,Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi. The files on the case had moved two months ago at the operational level without the knowledge of the political leadership,he is said to have told her.

The Congress damage-control exercise appeared to have worked,as hours later,Karunanidhi blamed the media’s imagination for making allegations about political vendetta. “The DMK has been continuously facing political vendettas. This may or may not have been one of them,” he said,but indicated that he would prefer to believe the clarification given by the union ministers.

Stalin,however,sought some kind of action against the officials concerned. “The fact is that the raids did take place and the officials concerned should be held responsible. I will face the case legally,” he said.

The government move to publicly express disapproval and the decision by the CBI to call off the raids,however,evoked sharp criticism from opposition parties,which dubbed the CBI as the “Congress Bureau of Investigation”.

Arun Jaitley,BJP leader and leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha,accused PM Singh of “blatantly interfering” in the CBI’s functioning and “crippling” it from carrying out routine investigations.

“Merely because it has a political fallout,it is improper for any Prime Minister or a finance minister to so blatantly interfere in the functioning of CBI and cripple it from carrying on its routine investigations,” Jaitley said.

“If this was a search in the normal course of CBI investigation,CBI is entitled to carry out that search. What business does the government have or the political regime have to interfere in CBI and start stopping that search”? he said,adding that the investigating agency had carried out searches on many people in the past but the Prime Minister had never condemned them.

BSP chief Mayawati also slammed the CBI action against Stalin,contending that she too has been a victim of “misuse” of CBI. “I have been a victim of the misuse of CBI. Be it BJP or Congress,both have misused CBI,” she told reporters.

Not mincing any words,the CPM also said the raids were a “clear signal” to the parties supporting the ruling dispensation to behave or suffer. “If the Prime Minister as the head of the government,does not know what his government is doing,it is a sad state of affairs,” party leader Sitaram Yechury said,adding that the “only authority who stopped these raids will be the ones who ordered it”.