All theseassets had been acquiredduring the time when Lalu Yadav had been theRailways Minister in the UPA government. Laluhas beenup in arms with the Centre, blaming the BJP and even Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for being indifferent to these raids. He saidthat he was not afraid. Irrespective of whether Lalu is afraid or not, but these raids must reach their culmination with conviction of those found guilty. As per existing law, all these benami properties of Lalu must be confiscated by the government. A strong message must go out to all and sundry that politics does not provide immunity from corruption and those found guilty would be severely punished.
CBI searched the homes and offices of Congress leader P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram as part of a wider probe into suspected misconduct in government approvals for foreign investments. The CBI has formally named Karti Chidambaram as one of the accused for criminal conspiracy, cheating, seeking to influence a public servant and criminal misconduct in a 2007 sale of stakes in a company called INX Media to offshore entities.
It needs to be remembered that questions were earlier also raised in various quarters that why CBI was not acting against Karti Chidambaram. At that time, the Congress netas including Chidambaram had said that, who was stopping the CBI from proceeding further? But now, when the CBI has acted, the Congress is crying vendetta!
Let people shout and rant, this should not affect the work of these agencies. It is not enough that after three years these agencies have finally woken up and acted against these two political bigwigs. It is only after these agencies are able to get the accused convictedin these cases that it would be said that it was a job well done. It needs to be recalled that these Central agencies' past record in respect of corruption in high places has not been good. However, it's never to late to make amends! Or, is it?
