Following the raids at Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia's residence, Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Manoj Jha on Friday criticised Aam Aadmi Party for maintaining "eerie silence" when the Opposition leaders are raided by the central probe agencies and advised AAP to send a message to the Centre to "fight the political battles politically".
He further said that the message has to be conveyed to the government to "fight political battles politically" which the Centre does not want to do.
The remarks of the RJD leader came on the backdrop of CBI raids on the residence of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia in connection with the Delhi Excise policy case.
Speaking to ANI, Jha said, "The institutions like CBI and ED have lost their character. Their direction is decided, we all know where it comes from. When raids are conducted on Opposition leaders, AAP chooses eerie silence. We are speaking for you, aren't we? Nobody will benefit from this isolated thinking or from such one-sided thinking."
Jha further said that the Opposition leaders have to get united to give a message to the Centre to "fight the political battles politically", adding that the Centre "does not want to do this".
"We (Opposition parties) all have to give a message to fight political battles politically, which the Central government does not want to do," Jha added.
The RJD MP cited the instance of the dilution of cases after Opposition leaders joined the BJP, and said that the "predictability of the central agencies is a matter of concern".
"Whenever there are such actions against any Opposition leader, we have to speak for each other. We have seen a pattern. When a leader is raided and joins the BJP, there is no more buzz about the cases. This is a blot on the rule of law. The predictability of the central agencies is a matter of concern," Jha said.
As CBI officials arrived at his residence this morning, Sisodia said the AAP government is honest and referred to its work in the field of education.
"CBI has arrived. We are honest, building a future for lakhs of children. Unfortunate that in this country, whoever does good work is hassled just like this, that is why our country is still not number-1."
Kejriwal also conveyed his support for Sisodia saying that nothing will come out of this raid and that many such happened in past. "I welcome CBI. We will cooperate fully. There have been many such probes, and raids in past. Nothing came out. Nothing will come out this time too," Kejriwal said.
"CBI is doing its work, there is no need to be scared. We should let CBI do its work, they have an order from the top to hassle us. Obstacles will come but work won't stop," he added.
Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta slammed the AAP government for introducing the Excise Policy even as Delhi was grappling with the situation created by COVID-19.
"They were not bothered about Covid but their sole focus was on bringing a new excise policy. They waived off Rs144 crore and gave the contracts to blacklisted companies instead of using the money for Covid relief," Gupta alleged.
"Ever since the new excise policy came into force, Sisodia along with Kejriwal kept making money by colluding with the liquor mafia. And when the CBI started the investigation, they started talking about various things due to the fear of being exposed," Gupta told media persons.
Congress leader Alka Lamba also attacked the AAP government.
"If their policy was right, why they had they started the prior one by Sheila Dixit when she was CM of Delhi? AAP always criticises her tenure and now they are following her policies," Lamba said in a tweet.
Former Congress leader Kapil Sibal targeted the government over the raids and said CBI and ED were its "long arms".
"CBI, ED - the long arms of Government Now that Kejriwal is on the rise Time for BJP to destabilise So target Satyendra Jain Now Sidodia," he said.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor