Akhilesh skips CBI summons, alleges agency acting as BJP’s wing
The CBI had summoned Akhilesh Yadav to appear as a witness in the 2019 illegal mining case in Uttar Pradesh
Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday skipped the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) summons to him in the 2019 illegal mining case and alleged that the investigating agency was acting as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s wing.
The CBI had summoned Akhilesh Yadav to appear as a witness in the case at its Delhi office on Thursday (February 29).
“I have sent a reply (to CBI)”, Akhilesh said at a press conference at the party office during the day. Shortly before the SP president’s press conference, party spokesperson Fakhrul Hasan Chand said: “He (Akhilesh Yadav), through a lawyer, has sent a reply to the CBI that he is busy...He will cooperate...Will be available on videoconferencing or at CBI’s Lucknow office”.
However, when asked during the press conference as to what he wrote in the reply, the SP chief said: “Ask those who had told and leaked the information about me being summoned. We are not the ones who would attempt to gain any political mileage out of it”.
“On one hand, it’s us who want to save the Constitution; on the other are those (BJP) who want to destroy it,” he added. “BJP is at its weakest now,”, he said and added: “... this is not the first time we are facing the CBI. It happened to me and Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) earlier. We have been facing it for last 20 years”.
“...But, the people of the country are not blind. They are watching it all, all that is happening...Summons before elections…The CBI works as BJP’s Prakoshtha (cell/wing),” he said. “BJP came through UP, will exit through UP. The BJP will lose all 80 UP LS seats. INDIA bloc is getting stronger, the PDA (backwards, Dalits, minorities) is getting stronger,” the SP chief added.
Talking about the recent Rajya Sabha polls wherein over a dozen SP MLAs turned rebels and cross-voted for the BJP, Akhilesh said: “You can buy MLAs, but you can’t buy Janata (public)...We don’t poach, we invite (people from other parties)...Those who rebelled in RS polls are the ones who went hoping for ministership, packages, contracts and security. BJP should make Manoj Pandey the UP deputy chief minister.”
Manoj Pandey, the SP Unchahar (Rae Bareli) MLA who on the RS polling day resigned from the post of the SP chief whip in UP assembly and then within hours--with six other SP rebels voted for the BJP’s eighth (extra) candidate leading to his victory.
On the recent police constables recruitment exam cancellation, Akhilesh alleged: “The paper was deliberately leaked so that the government doesn’t have to give jobs. If they give jobs, they will have to give reservations in the jobs as well. BJP does not want to give reservation.”
“It wants to outsource jobs. Even in the armed forces they are doing this--it’s outsourcing, a contractual job. One day Agniveers, the outsourced soldiers, will be sent to fight for Russia or Israel,” he further alleged.