It is the BJP’s modus operandi to unleash Central enforcement and investigating agencies against its political rivals in poll-bound States, Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLC K. Kavitha said on Thursday. She lashed out at the ruling party ahead of her scheduled questioning by the Enforcement Directorate in the capital on Saturday, in connection with the Delhi liquor scam case.
However, the BJP accused the Telangana Chief Minister’s daughter of being “obstructionist” and asked her to cooperate with law enforcement agencies. Its response was also directed at the political leaders from nine States who have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that enforcement agencies were being used for political purposes, in order to intimidate the Opposition.
Ms. Kavitha will appear for questioning at the ED’s headquarters in the capital at 11 a.m. on Saturday, after the agency acceded to her request to delay her appearance by a day. Though the ED had served a notice on Ms. Kavitha on Wednesday morning to appear for questioning on Thursday, she said that she was already scheduled to lead a Bharat Jagruthi hunger strike at Jantar Mantar in the capital on Friday to demand enactment of the Women’s Reservation Bill. She left Hyderabad for Delhi on Wednesday evening, and the ED responded to her request on Thursday morning.
In Hyderabad, her father and Telangana CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao presided over a Cabinet meeting where the road map in case of Ms. Kavitha’s arrest was dscussed, according to sources. Mr. Rao has convened another meeting of the BRS’ Parliamentary and legislature parties as well as its State executive on Thursday for wider discussions on the issue. He also instructed the two women members of his Cabinet, his party’s MLAs and the BRS’ lone woman MP to participate in Ms. Kavitha’s dharna on Friday.
Ms. Kavitha’s brother K.T. Rama Rao, who is the BRS’ working president and Telangana Industries Minister, also vented his spleen on the Centre for targeting his sister.
‘Law-abiding citizen’
In Delhi, Ms. Kavitha held a press conference where she reiterated that she was a law-abiding citizen and would cooperate with the investigation, unlike some BJP leaders named in the MLAs poaching case who kept avoiding the probe by obtaining court stays.
“The ED appears to be in a hurry as the agency has not given me an opportunity, a fundamental right of a woman, to examine me in the case at my residence. I have initially appealed for appearing before it on March 16 after attending my prior commitments but the authorities refused. They have asked to appear on March 11 after I mentioned about a protest programme planned for March 10,” she said.
Quoting a few lines from the Mahabharata, she said that the truth would always triumph over the false in any battle. Noting that the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Income Tax department and the ED have already carried out raids against 15 or 16 BRS leaders including Ministers, MPs, MLAs and MLCs, Ms. Kavitha claimed that this was part of the BJP’s modus operandi in any poll-bound State governed by an Opposition party.
‘Intimidation strategy’
“People are very much aware of the ‘Modi se pehle ED’ syndrome in non-BJP ruled States. The BJP government at the Centre will unleash the enforcement and investigating agencies on the opposition parties’ leaders and business houses supporting them. At the same time, they won’t touch the BJP leaders and business houses supporting them in spite of facing allegations,” she alleged.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury also called on Ms. Kavitha at her father’s residence in New Delhi.
The BJP has maintained that Ms. Kavitha should cooperate with the law enforcement agencies. The party plans to hold press conferences in nine States on Thursday and Friday to respond to the letter written to the PM by nine Opposition leaders alleging that they were being targeted by agencies for political reasons.
‘Obstructionist’
Tarun Chugh, the BJP’s national general secretary in charge of Telangana, said that the summons issued were in connection with the excise policy case, adding that Ms. Kavitha should have responded to them, instead of asking for more time.
“Those who looted Telangana, who were instrumental in spreading a liqour mafia across South India and this scam in Delhi — today, when the investigative agency calls you, you can’t spare the time?” said Mr. Chugh. “Law is taking its own course and you should not be obstructionist with regard to law enforement agencies. If people who occupy consitutional position obstruct the law, people will lose faith. Those involved in these scams should disclose all to the agencies,” he added.
While this was a response to Ms Kavitha’s fiery press conference over the summons issued to her, the BJP is also responding to the Opposition leaders’ letter. It was signed by nine leaders including four current CMs — Mr. Rao of Telangana, Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal, Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi, and Bhagwant Mann of Punjab — as well as Bihar’s deputy CM Tejaswi Yadav, former Maharahtra CMs Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar, former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav, and former Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah.
The BJP’s State leaders will hold press conferences in these leaders’ States, as well as in Kerala, on Thursday and Friday, to respond to the points raised in the letter.
