Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 9

The Lok Sabha passed two Bills on Thursday to extend the tenures of Directors of the CBI and the ED up to a maximum of five years from the present two years. The Central Vigilance Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2021, and the Delhi Special Police Establishment (Amendment) Bill, 2021, were passed separately by voice vote after the House rejected various amendments moved by Opposition MPs on the Bills.

Adhir: LS misled on Nagaland deaths

Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Thursday claimed that Home Minister Amit Shah had “misled” the Lok Sabha when he said forces opened fire on civilians in Nagaland after they tried to flee. “Those admitted to hospital have said ‘direct marise’ (they were shot directly),” he said.

Congress MPs staged a walkout, saying they weren’t satisfied with MoS (Personnel) Jitendra Singh’s reply.

The Opposition alleged the extended tenures would undermine the autonomy of the institutes. The BJP, however, claimed the step was necessary to fight large-scale corruption.

Congress MP Manish Tewari said the decision to extend the tenures was “arbitrary, capricious and an exercise of power”.

“Over the last seven-and-a-half years, this government has made every attempt to dismantle the system of checks and balances, which are intrinsic to our constitutional scheme,” he said.

Tewari pointed out that the Supreme Court had specified a tenure of two years for the heads of these organisations to ensure they were insulated from any kind of governmental interference.

Replying to this, BJP’s Rajyavardhan Rathore said it was “easy to maintain status quo... the Modi government isn’t here to maintain status quo but to bring about a change in the country.”