The Congress on Wednesday jumped onto the claim of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal —that “gross financial irregularities” have taken place in Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) — and demanded the dismissal of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Since Mr. Jaitley headed the DDCA at the time of the alleged misappropriation, the leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, said an independent probe should be conducted by a “joint parliamentary committee” to figure out whether the finance minister had anything to do with what seems like a scam from the Delhi government’s investigation report.
The DDCA controversy was kicked up by Mr. Kejriwal after the CBI raided his principal secretary’s office on Tuesday morning. Mr. Kejriwal said the real intent of the raid was to whisk away the files that proved the DDCA scam.
Instead of supporting Mr. Kejriwal’s claim, the Congress treaded a cautious path on Tuesday, focussing on its own issues like its troubles with the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh and attack on the ruling BJP over what they perceive as “political vendetta.”
A day later, Mr. Azad along with his fellow Congressman and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge and Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken addressed media, displaying the documents of Delhi government’s investigation as evidence against Mr. Jaitley. The report points out several embezzlements—from spiking up the spending of a stadium renovation from Rs. 24 crores to Rs. 114 crores, from handing over contracts to companies run by DDCA office bearers and from wrongfully lending money to private companies. All this, according to the report, has happened at the time Mr. Jaitley was the chairman of DDCA.
The Congress chose to attack Mr. Kejriwal as well.
“Congress also calls upon Arvind Kejriwal to stop the blame game and get down to real work to nail corruption,” Mr. Maken said.
Mr. Azad cast suspicion as to why Mr. Kejriwal “has taken no action” since last month when the reported was handed to him.
Mr. Azad said since all the first class investigation agencies — Enforcement Directorate, Revenue Intelligence, Serious Fraud Investigation Office — directly report to Mr. Jaitley, only a “joint parliamentary committee” can investigate this matter impartially.
