Jogi says PM misusing CBI

Accusing PM A.B. Vajpayee of indulging in political vendetta and having an anti-lower caste bias, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi said...

Accusing PM A.B. Vajpayee of indulging in political vendetta and having an anti-lower caste bias, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi said Vajpayee was ‘‘misusing’’ the CBI against him after receiving an election survey indicating Congress victory.

‘‘It is a political reality that the NDA Government, especially our PM, cannot tolerate that the son of an Adivasi is a Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh,’’ Jogi said in a BBC Hindi special programme Aapki Baat BBC Ke Saath broadcast last night.

His minister bans booze for votes

ASHWANI SHARMA
RAIPUR, NOVEMBER 3

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Chief Minister Ajit Jogi might have landed in trouble and earned the EC’s ire for distribution of free schoolbags with his picture on them, but to believe his Finance Minister Ram Chandra Singh Deo, the upcoming election will be free of free distribution of liquor to poor voters.

Singh Deo is also Chhattisgarh’s Excise and Taxation Minister. If he succeeds, politicians will have to find new ways to smuggle liquor to voters in slums and Adivasi hamlets, a common practice so far. At least one minister, Tarun Chatterjee, infamous for open distribution of free liquor during his poll campaign, endorses Singh Deo’s stand.

As a part of MP, this region has been a bastion of the liquor lobby that had influenced elections. Not only has Singh Deo passed directions to Excise officials, he has also warned stern action against erring officials. Leader of Opposition Nand Kumar Sai, however, doubts if the Congress is ready to borrow Singh Deo’s idea.

Asked about a CBI charge that he had forged a document, Jogi said: ‘‘It has happened for the first time in the history of this country that a CM complains to the Prime Minister, and the latter turns the complainant into an accused.’’

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Jogi asked why the CBI decided to file the chargesheet two days after elections were notified. He said he had received a document from IB by post. ‘‘I sent it to the PM requesting that this is a serious matter involving an intelligence agency and it must be investigated. Far from investigating, Vajpayee chose to make me an accused,’’ he said. ‘‘The chargesheet against me does not anywhere say that I have forged the documents. It, on the contrary, has a laughable query — why did I write to the PM and why I did not investigate it myself.’’ He said state governments cannot launch investigation against the IB.

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