New Delhi:
Stung by the CBI summoning its top Gujarat Minister Amit Shah for questioning in a criminal case, the BJP has gone on a counter-offensive slamming the government for what it calls the "shameless misuse of the CBI" for political benefit. (
Read: Who is Amit Shah?)
Senior BJP leaders - LK Advani, Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley - skipped a lunch hosted by the Prime Minister on Friday to record their displeasure. "The atmosphere is too bitter for us to lunch with the PM," Sushma Swaraj at a press conference in Delhi.
Amit Shah, Minister of State for Home in Narendra Modi's government, has been asked to appear before the CBI in connection with the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case of 2005.
The BJP says the government is misusing the CBI to defame the Modi government. "The acts are concocted and false", Arun Jaitley said, adding that the CBI had become an extended arm of the ruling party. "Timing has been chosen for the political convenience of the Congress party. What kind of precedent are they setting?" he asked.
Jaitley said the government was using the CBI to trap political opponents and to save its own people. He alluded to crucial votes in Parliament and alleged there was a connection between different parties voting with the government and "the CBI's change in stand."
The Amit Shah episode was an example of this, Jaitley said, adding that the "CBI is following a political agenda on baseless facts."
Swaraj said LK Advani had called Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday morning to inform him that the PM's lunch, being held at his home, would not be attended by the BJP.
On Friday morning, the top leaders of the BJP met at Advani's house to discuss the party's strategy in the face of the huge embarrassment caused by the summoning of Amit Shah. The party is said to be worried that Narendra Modi, looked upon as one of the BJP's biggest strengths, is being undermined.
The timing of the Amit Shah episode is also critical. It comes just before the beginning of the monsoon session of Parliament. The BJP is armed with a slew of issues to attack the Congress-led UPA government with and the government may just have deflected some of that negative focus.
Amit Shah was asked by the CBI to meet its officials in Ahmedabad by 1 pm on Friday. However, minutes before the deadline expired, his lawyer requested the CBI for more time, asking also for details of the sort of questions that are likely to be put to the minister. (
Read: Modi minister asks for more time)
Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife, Kauser Bi, were killed in 2005 by the Gujarat Anti-Terror Squad. The government has admitted in court that the police's original claim - that Sohrabuddin was a Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist who planned to assassinate Narendra Modi - was false. The CBI reportedly has phone records that show Shah was in close touch with the policemen who allegedly murdered Sohrabuddin. Those policemen are in jail now.