PATNA: Senior functionaries of JD(U) and RJD, both leading allies of the seven-party Grand Alliance government in Bihar, on Monday differed on the issue of ‘restricting’ the entry of CBI in the state.
As per Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act-1946, the CBI requires consent from the respective state governments for conducting investigations in their jurisdiction. Altogether nine states including Mizoram, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, Jharkhand, Punjab and Meghalaya have withdrawn or not given general consent to the CBI to investigate cases in their jurisdiction.
While RJD national vice president Shivanand Tiwari emphasized on Monday that the Nitish Kumar-led government should withdraw its general consent to the CBI like other nine states, JD(U)parliamentary board chairman and former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha said such a decision should not be taken by any state governments.
"The way the Narendra Modi government misused or has been misusing the CBI, the different state governments were compelled to take this drastic decision to withdraw their general consent to the central investigating agency. Mizoram was the first state government which withdrew its consent to the CBI in 2015, just a year after the Modi government came into power at the Centre. So far, altogether 9 states have withdrawn their consent,” Tiwari said and asked the Bihar government to withdraw its consent to the CBI under Section 6 of the DSPE Act. “It will be our moral resistance towards the misuse of the CBI by the Modi government," Tiwari said.
Hours after Tiwari’s statement, Kushwaha said, “In my opinion, no state should restrict the entry of the CBI. If the Government of India is misusing the CBI, the fault lies with the Central government and not with the investigating agency.”
Kushwaha also said, “The country requires such an honest government at the Centre that does not misuse any of the central agencies. Today's necessity is that the government at the Centre allows the agencies to work independently. And, it would not be proper to ban the agencies.”
Asked for his reaction over Tiwari’s remarks, CM Nitish Kumar on Monday said, “I do not know who speaks what." ('Pata nahi log kya bolte hai')."
The controversy over restricting the entry of CBI in Bihar began on Sunday evening after a news agency quoting an unidentified senior RJD leader ran a news that the Grand Alliance leaders held a meeting in the state capital on Saturday and decided to request the state government to withdraw its general consent to the CBI under Section 6 of the DSPE Act, in the wake of recent CBI raids on the premises of five RJD leaders.
On August 24, when the Nitish Kumar-led new government was seeking trust vote in the assembly, the CBI conducted raids on the premises of RJD MLC Sunil Kumar Singh, Rajya Sabha members Ashfaque Karim and Fayyaz Ahmed, ex-MLC Subodh Rai and former MLA Abu Dojana in Bihar in connection with the ‘land-for-job’ scam in railways between 2004-2009 when RJD chief Lalu Prasad was the railway minister.
Reacting over the controversy, Opposition BJP assailed the state government for making an attempt to restrict the entry of CBI, saying it was being done to protect “corrupt” leaders of the grand alliance.
The Leader of opposition in state assembly Vijay Kumar Sinha on Monday alleged that ruling grand alliance leaders were demanding the withdrawal of general consent to CBI to “protect corrupt politicians in the seven-party alliance.”
