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The Trinamool Congress batted for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday and hit out at the government over the Central Bureau of Investigation raids on his principal secretary’s office alleging that the agency had become 'Gujarat Bureau of Investigation' under the Modi government.
TMC leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay said the raids had 'perturbed' them and rejected the government’s claim that the CBI was an 'independent body', claiming that the agency could not have acted without the prime minister's knowledge.
Rejecting his charge, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said that Parliament should be used to 'strengthen' the fight against corruption and not to 'obstruct' it.
Insisting that the Delhi CM has not been raided, he said, "No wrong has been done. Law is taking its own course. It is not the duty of Parliament to take up such matter. The CBI should be free and need not take any permission."
Training his guns on the PM, Bandyopadhyay said senior Gujarat cadre officers had been deputed in the CBI and one of them 'shared' his name with Modi and the agency had turned into 'GBI'.
He also spoke about Kejriwal's claim that the CBI officials were looking for 'cricket-oriented' files relating to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and demanded setting up of a joint parliamentary committee to go into various aspect of the agency's functioning.
Dismissing the contention that Kejriwal should have been informed, Naidu said it would not be in accordance with the law and read out an earlier Aam Aadmi Party's statement welcoming a Supreme Court order which had struck down a provision of a probe agency intimating the government concerned while acting against an officer of joint secretary rank and above.
Taking a dig at the AAP leader, he said he disapproved his remarks against the prime minister in which he had called him a 'coward and psychopath'.
"Can any chief minister make such a loose comment? He is a youngster, a newcomer in politics," Naidu said.
TMC members later staged a walkout after party member Ratna Dey again sought to raise the issue and was disallowed.
Taking exception to the CBI raids, Bandyopadhyay said Kejriwal had become Delhi chief minister with a 'popular mandate' in the same way Modi became the prime minister.
Attacking the CBI, he said it was earlier accused to be Congress Bureau of Investigation and sought that matters like these raids should be discussed in the House.
Hitting back, Naidu said the TMC leader might be speaking from his experience as a minister in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.
Downplaying his remarks about Gujarat cadre officers joining the CBI, he said the state was a part of India and great people from Mahatma Gandhi to Narendra Modi hailed from there, inviting loud protests from the opposition benches.
Naidu also referred to a case relating to corruption in Delhi government's education department and said the prosecutor had told court that he was being 'threatened' with suspension by some officials if he did not share files with them.
"We do not interfere at all. Sudipda, you are arguing a wrong case," Naidu said, adding that there was ‘Twitter competition’ going on about what Kejriwal used to say earlier and what he is saying now.
"We cannot have a running commentary on the functioning of the CBI. Do not come to the rescue of the corrupt. This is not the duty of Parliament," the Minister said, adding that he had 'good equations' with Kejriwal who had generated 'new hope and new ideals'.