Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Sunday clashed over the Kerala government’s decision to institute a judicial inquiry against Central agencies investigating the UAE consulate-linked gold smuggling case.
Both leaders were in Kerala for electioneering and met the press separately.
Mr. Singh said the LDF government’s move was unconstitutional in bringing the Central law enforcement agencies within the ambit of a judicial commission of inquiry. It reflected a certain uneasiness that the investigative and regulatory agencies were edging closer to the truth, he said, adding that the bogey of a judicial probe would not deter them.
Mr. Yechury countered Mr. Singh and said the States were well within their rights to limit cooperation with the Central government on issues that infringed on their constitutional rights. “The Defence Minister must re-read the Constitution. No Central agency can interfere or work in any State without the concurrence of the State concerned. If the State is not willing to give the concurrence, then it has to get a judicial intervention. It cannot be a direct intervention like what is being done now.”
The LDF government’s decision on Friday to set a panel to probe the alleged jurisdictional overreach and political bias of Central agencies has reignited the debate on the BJP-led administration’s perceived trespasses on federalism.
The Kerala government arguably required the ECI’s permission to set the judicial probe in motion. The commission's terms of reference and the agencies that would come under the ambit of its investigation were not immediately known.
Since January last, an Assembly election-eve showdown with the Central government has been brewing. First, Kerala joined ranks with 11 other States to halt work on the National Population Register. Soon thereafter, the State government withdrew the general consent to the CBI to voluntarily operate in Kerala after the agency booked Life Mission officials on the charge of violating the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. (Life Mission is Kerala's flagship programme to provide free housing to low-income families).
The decision to bring central agencies under the ambit of a judicial enquiry comes barely two weeks after the Kerala police booked unnamed Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials on the charge of conspiring to implicate Mr. Vijayan in the smuggling case dishonestly.
Earlier, the Custom had said in a court filing that the woman suspect in the gold smuggling case had stated with clarity about the “smuggling of gold” at the instance of the Chief Minister and Speaker (P. Sreeramakrishnan). The submission marked a further low in the already fraught Centre-State relations. It also prompted LDF activists to lay siege to Customs offices across the State in protest.
The LDF has made an election issue out of the Centre’s alleged trespasses against federalism. BJP and Congress, on the other hand, have attacked the LDF for hobbling the Central law enforcement agencies to save the face of its political leadership.
Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said at a press conference at his residence in Delhi on Sunday that the Kerala government’s move to register a case against Enforcement Directorate officials was a “face saving exercise” as the principal secretary of the State government had been arrested in a gold smuggling case.
(with inputs from Vijaita Singh in Delhi)
