The Hindu : Walkout over `misuse' of CBI

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 24, 2003

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Walkout over `misuse' of CBI

By Our New Delhi Bureau

NEW DELHI JULY 23. The Opposition today staged a walkout in both the Houses of Parliament protesting the alleged misuse of the Central Bureau of Investigation to exonerate the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, and others from charges of conspiring to demolish the Babri Masjid.

Replying to a short-duration discussion in the Rajya Sabha as well as in the Lok Sabha, the Union Law Minister, Arun Jaitley, accused the Opposition of trying to create an environment "prejudicial to the holding of a fair trial in the Ayodhya case". There was an attempt to subsume the chargesheet of the case involving Mr. Advani and others into the larger chargesheet at a Lucknow court, he said.

As the State was then under President's rule, the Adviser to the Governor had given detailed reasons in September 1993 that the two chargesheets could not be clubbed because the accusations were different.

It was for the court to decide under the due process of law if any charge was made out or not or if any other charge could also be levelled based on the evidence presented before it. "Whether Section 120-B is warranted or not, the CBI can state in the chargesheet. It is still for the court to decide," he said.

The Shiv Sena's Sanjay Nirupam said there was no question of criminal conspiracy in the case.

While V.V. Raghavan (CPI) said that recent events raised doubts over the CBI's independent functioning, Kuldip Nayar (Nominated) said that over the years it had become a mere "rubber stamp" of the Government in power at the Centre.

The Information and Broadcasting Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, termed as "absurd" allegations that the Vajpayee Government was influencing the CBI. "We have been in Government for the past five years. We could have withdrawn the cases but did not do so because we wanted a fair trial,'' he said.

Nilotpal Basu of the CPI(M) took exception to the absence of the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, during the discussion and said he must tell the nation why after filing the conspiracy charge, the CBI now felt there was no conspiracy.

Kapil Sibal (Cong.) wanted the Government to consider setting up an independent office of prosecutor to avoid allegations by whichever party happened to be in the Opposition. "The rule of law is being besmirched by the foul hands of the executive," he observed.

Speaker disallows Opposition move

In the Lok Sabha, the Speaker, Manohar Joshi, disallowed an Opposition-sponsored adjournment motion seeking to censure the Government on the same issue. The Opposition walked out in protest, accusing the Government of misleading the House.

Mr. Joshi said the discussion was being disallowed because if it "takes place by way of an adjournment motion, culminating in a decision, the possibility of the court being influenced cannot be ruled out". But he was prepared to allow a short duration discussion, as it would not entail a decision from the House.

Earlier in the day, the Lok Sabha witnessed an animated discussion on the admissibility of the Opposition-sponsored motion. Somnath Chatterjee (CPI-M), Priyaranjan Dasmunshi (Cong.), Ramvilas Paswan (Lok Janshakti Party), Raghuvansh Prasad (RJD) and Ramjilal Suman (SP) argued in favour of the motion being admitted.

The Opposition asked the Government to clarify whether the CBI had ever asked for the inclusion of Section 120-B against Mr. Advani and others. "How was the conspiracy charge omitted, who is in charge of the CBI," they asked.

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