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National

Jaya Jaitley slams Centre

Special Correspondent

Why “double standards” against its political opponents?

Jaya Jaitley

NEW DELHI: The former Samata Party president, Jaya Jaitley, on Thursday accused the Union government of practising “double standards” against its political opponents.

Ms. Jaitley, who faces a CBI probe in the Tehelka scam, told journalists that while the government did not find anything wrong in the case of Shipping Minister T.R. Baalu’s “official pressures for personal benefits” or in eight referral letters going out of the Prime Minister’s Office in the matter, in her case “for no crime at all,” the government “blatantly misused the CBI.”

Ms. Jaitley said neither in the [Tehelka] tapes nor in the charge sheet filed against her by the CBI was there any evidence of her having taken up the matter with anyone in the government regarding any defence transaction or forwarding of any complaint of a commercial nature.

She said she did not take up matters related to companies as she had no personal interest in them. If and when an injustice became evident, all she did was to request the staff in the Minister’s office to see that everyone was treated fairly.

“This is nothing more than what would be said by any honest public worker. No further action was taken beyond this, nor is there proof to the contrary.”

She said that while no charges were framed by the court, her passport was impounded by the CBI, curtailing her visits abroad and hampering her work as a social worker.

Charging the government with “blatantly misusing” the CBI and wasting public funds, she said the government was trying to pin down its political opponents in court “for no crime at all.”

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