New Delhi: The Congress top leadership has cautioned the State unit to be more guarded in defending Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar to avoid a perception that the party was shielding the corrupt.
The party should only criticise the timing of the raids and use of central force rather than defending under-scanner leaders per se, is the message to Karnataka leaders, said Congress sources.
“Since Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi has taken a tough stand of zero-tolerance towards corruption in public life, we should be very careful in defending any leader who comes on the radar of investigating agencies. Though the party is against the timing of the raid and its motive, we can’t blindly say that the I-T Department should not raid anybody or probe anybody’s wealth,” a senior Congress leader said.
“If we oppose the I-T probe, the BJP may argue that we are obstructing the functioning of the investigation agency. Since we have already declared that the party is against black money, we cannot question the I-T Department probing any of our leaders,” said the leader.
This post was published on August 5, 2017 6:38 pm