Congress communication department head Randeep Surjewala.
The Congress on Sunday hit out at the central government over searches conducted by the Income-Tax department in Chhattisgarh, claiming the raids were aimed at destabilising ongoing investigations into alleged acts of corruption by the previous BJP government in the state.
The party accused the government of using the CRPF for “executing its political vendetta” and said the use of CRPF without the express consent of the state government, violates not only the constitutional scheme of federalism but is an attack on democracy itself. “No government in Indian history, prior to the Modi-Shah regime, can be accused of reducing the status of an elite force such as the CRPF to that of an accompanying party for an income tax raid. No political party, except the BJP, has ever used the CRPF to execute a political vendetta,” Congress communication department head Randeep Surjewala told reporters.
Addressing a press conference, he and AICC in-charge of Chhattisgarh P L Punia claimed the searches were conducted in a “clandestine, cloak and dagger manner without any information being provided to the state government or to the state police”.