‘Lot to hide’: Arun Jaitley’s jab at Mamata Banerjee, Chandrababu Naidu on banishing CBI

In a scathing attack on West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh governments for withdrawing consent to CBI for investigating corruption cases in their states, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said there was no sovereignty of any state in the matter of corruption. “Saradha and Narada in West Bengal can’t be wiped off by merely keeping CBI out of the state and the Andhra Pradesh move is not motivated by any particular case but by the fear of what is likely to happen,” he said in reply to a question from journalists. Jaitley was in Bhopal to release the BJP’s vision document for the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday decided to stop the CBI from investigating cases in her state after Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu took a similar step. “We have a federal structure in India. Under that federal structure, the CBI was created initially for employees of the central government and then to investigate several kinds of serious cases in the states which were referred to it either by states or by courts. CBI can’t snatch any case,” Jaitley said. “It’s only those who have a lot to hide will take the step of saying that let CBI not come to my state,” he said. Jaitley asked how the CBI would investigate the cases related to the central government’s establishments in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh and how CBI will investigate the corruption cases of central government’s tax officials posted in the two states. Referring to Sharadha and Narada scams, he said several big leaders of Trinamool Congress were involved in it. On Andhra Pradesh, he said the government was perhaps trying to shield someone over there by taking the step. In reply to a question on demonetisation, he said it was a ‘highly ethical’ move taken by the central government and it helped widen the tax net of the government as well and when revenue increased, it helped the states also which had 42% share in the taxes. Source: Hindustan Times