Criticising the decision to exclude CBI from the ambit of RTI, activist Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday accused the government of not bringing it under an independent Lokpal to “arm twist” political leaders opposed to it.
Ahead of the final meeting of the joint drafting committee on Lokpal Bill, Mr. Kejriwal told reporters that it appears that whenever the government was in trouble, it will “send CBI after politicians like Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati”.
“The government is interested in keeping the CBI as a dishonest agency so that it can arm twist opponents and scuttle any investigation against their own people,” Mr. Kejriwal, who is one of the ten member of the committee, said.
He also noted that CBI does not deal with security and intelligence and cannot be clubbed with agencies like Intelligence Bureau or RAW. “RTI Act says security and intelligence agencies can be kept out,” he said.
Asked about the previous meetings of the Lokpal drafting committee, he said they had a feeling that the decisions of the government side were “pre-decided”.
However, he said, the silver lining was that they were able to hold a country-wide discussion about Lokpal and its various provisions.
