New Delhi, Nov.24 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday charged the ruling Congress Party and the UPA-II Government of clearing the appointment of Ranjit Sinha as the new chief of the Central Bureau Investigation (CBI) to protect itself from various scam-linked accusations.
BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said: "As far the question of CBI is concerned, whatever they are doing points out to the fact that the Congress party is scared of giving answers to people's questions in the coming elections. This is why they think that by misusing the CBI, by attacking constitutional bodies, they will be able to remove the blemishes of the scams and escape from them."
"We have nothing personal against Ranjit Sinha, who has been appointed as the new CBI director. But the way the government has hurriedly appointed him, the way the civil rights societies are blaming the government for misusing the CBI for saving itself. If the government wants to portray its image as clean then they should have developed a consensus over the appointment before finalising his name," said another BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu said in Hyderabad: "When there is universal demand for a transparent method to appoint the director of CBI, the backdrop of the charges that government is misusing CBI for their own ends. The government acted in a hasty manner, fast tracked everything and made appointment of CBI director for two years. This is not acceptable. It should have be made by a select committee of Rajya Sabha (parliament's upper house) giving a unanimous recommendation of the collegium, the Prime Minister, leader of the opposition and a Supreme Court judge, should make the choice of the CBI director."
The select committee of parliament on the anti-graft Ombudsman (Lokpal) Bill has suggested that appointments such as the CBI chief should be done through a collegium method.
The Congress Party contended that legislation was a lengthy process, and with the current CBI chief's tenure coming to an end in less than a week, it was imperative that an appointment be made.
This might be an exception but generally the opposition and the government have a deal over such matters. It is possible that this is an exception like it happened during the appointment of the CVC.
According to media reports Ranjit Sinha, a 1974 batch IPS officer of the Bihar cadre and current director general of Indo-Tibetan Border Force, has been named by the government as the next director of the CBI. (ANI)
