UPA survives on CBI’s lack of integrity: Arun Jaitley

It is easy for those with criminal cases to get elected, thanks to caste providing social sanction to criminals, said senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley at a memorial lecture at KC College, Churchgate. HT reports.

It is easy for those with criminal cases to get elected, thanks to caste providing social sanction to criminals, said senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley at a memorial lecture at KC College, Churchgate.

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His speech touched on several topical issues – from policy paralysis, dynastic rule to relations with Pakistan.

“I have always wondered why in some states it was always easy for people with criminal cases to get elected, whether on behalf of a political party or even without a political party,” said Jaitley.

“I have followed elections in some states, particularly UP and Bihar, very closely for several decades and it is this social sanction that the community gave even to a caste criminal, which enabled them to get support…”

Jaitley, who was part of a Rajya Sabha committee that recommended partly liberating the CBI from government control, said the UPA has survived on the strength of CBI's lack of integrity.

“Every time there is a vote in Parliament, on the eve of the vote, the CBI alters its stand on affidavits and the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party change their stand in Parliament… The key battle now in the Lokpal is how do you liberate CBI from the clutches of the government,” said Jaitley.

Slamming the Indian political structure, he said the “world’s largest democracy” had become a “dynastic democracy, adding that with slogans and identities coming to the fore parties are increasingly getting identified with caste.

Jaitley also took shots at “success stories” gone awry – telecom and highways. “…these two success stories were partly hampered in the prime minister’s choice of personnel to head those ministries…”