Clearly dissatisfied with the CBI action on allegations of corruption in 2G spectrum allocation case and in organising the Commonwealth Games, the Bharatiya Janata Party says it was delayed and not enough, and that more heads should roll.
The party was reacting to Monday's arrest of the former chairman of the CWG Organising Committee, Suresh Kalmadi, and some other senior officials and the naming of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi's daughter and Rajya Sabha MP, Kanimozhi, in a 2G-related charge sheet.
In Mumbai, BJP president Nitin Gadkari described the CBI revelations as the “tip of the iceberg,” while party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad felt that Mr. Kalmadi's arrest was a “right step taken belatedly.”
Another spokesperson, Nirmala Sitharaman, said while she was aware that the CBI investigation was being monitored by the Supreme Court, the government needed to answer whether it had put any pressure on the agency to leave out the name of Mr. Karunanidhi's wife, Dayalu Ammal, from the charge sheet in which his daughter's name figures. BJP leader Vijay Goel said “others” including Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit should be arrested for their role in the CWG related projects — delays resulted in higher cost as mentioned in the Shunglu Committee report. He demanded action against several Union Ministers, including the then Sport Minister, M.S. Gill, and the former Urban Development Minister, S. Jaipal Reddy, also. But he exonerated his own party leader Vijay Malhotra, who was part of the Organising Committee.
Asked about the BJP's own record of not taking any action against the corrupt during the National Democratic Alliance government, Mr. Goel said, “That is why the people threw us out [in 2004].”
On the lack of any action against Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa despite Mr. Gadkari damning his giving away plots to his children as morally reprehensible, Mr. Goel said, “He had only used the discretionary quota available to him and it was no corruption to use his discretion in favour of his children.”
In its reaction, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), while describing the arrest of Mr. Kalmadi as a “welcome step,” said it was, however, much delayed.
“Apart from the instances of corruption indulged in by the Organising Committee, there is the large scale misuse of funds for the games by other agencies and authorities in the Delhi government and the Central government. Some of these have been enquired into by the Shunglu Committee,” the Polit Bureau said in a statement.
It said the CBI should forthwith lodge cases and prosecute those who were responsible for expropriation of public funds.
