The Hindu : Front Page : Uproar over PMO letter

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 24, 2004

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Front Page

Uproar over PMO letter

By Our New Delhi Bureau

NEW DELHI, DEC. 23. Heated exchanges, interruptions and uproarious scenes were witnessed in Parliament as the Bharatiya Janata Party mounted an attack on the United Progressive Alliance Government alleging that it was indulging in ``subversion and misuse'' of the Centre's investigative agencies.

Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha during zero hour, the BJP leader, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, charged the Government with targeting political opponents through investigative agencies. It was ``interfering'' with the functioning of the Central Bureau of Investigation, he alleged and quoted from a letter purported to have been written by an official of the Prime Minister's Office to the Secretary in the Ministry of Personnel on the Ayodhya case against the BJP chief, L.K. Advani.

Terming such communication as ``strange'', the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, suggested that such letters should not be written for they could be misused. He asked if the content did not construe putting pressure on the CBI what was it then.

The Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, who is the Leader of the House, clarified that the letter was to seek legal opinion in the wake of a writ petition filed by two witnesses in court. The Government also wanted to know whether there was any failure by prosecution in taking timely action and moving higher court.

He asserted the letter was sent as normal practice and could not be construed as interference. ``There is no impropriety and nothing was done to interfere in the due process,'' Mr. Mukherjee said.

An interference: Jaitley

In the Rajya Sabha, the senior BJP leader, Arun Jaitley, said the Government, in an ``arrogant and brazen manner'', was interfering in the functioning of the investigating agencies.

He said the CBI had taken an independent decision on how to proceed further in the Ayodhya case after a court had discharged Mr. Advani. But this was being ``grossly'' interfered with by the Prime Minister's Office, he alleged.

Quoting from the December 8 letter, Mr. Jaitley charged that the letter did not seek information but sought to interfere in the functioning of the CBI and give directions to it.

Strongly refuting the charge, the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Suresh Pachouri, said: ``I will like to make it very clear that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has never interfered with the functioning of the CBI.''

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