JOIN US “I am personally, totally and absolutely and equivocally opposed to senior services officers of the ranks of chiefs of staff being investigated by CBI. I take objection to the Defence Minister having said that army officers of very high ranks be investigated by CBI. This is detrimental to the standing and morale of services,” Singh told reporters on the Parliament House premises. Singh, who had served in the army before joining politics, said there were laid down mechanisms for dealing with matters involving defence personnel.
“There are mechanisms within services that adequately take care of all these things. And whatever is not taken care of can be investigated by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC),” Singh said.
He maintained that anomalies in Commonwealth Games projects, Adarsh Housing Society and 2-G Spectrum allocation “all come together”.
“I think it is really important that investigation into these is not entrusted to CBI which itself most dysfunctional and discredited,” he said.
The former union minister insisted that sacking Ashok Chavan as Maharashtra chief minister was not enough.
“I don’t think sacking a chief minister as an internal administration matter is a solution to the problem. The problem is with enormity of corruption and enormity cannot be quantified. Therefore, it is necessary that Parliament is seized of it. It is not that earlier governments have not done it,” Singh said.
He claimed that arguments about not forming a JPC to probe the 2-G Spectrum case as it was pending in the Supreme Court were not strong as there is a precedence for such matters.
“JPCs have been formed earlier also (in cases which were in SC). I have been a member of such committees,” Singh said.
Asked about reports alleging that some associates of BJP President Nitin Gadkari were beneficiaries in Adarsh scam, Singh said, “Let it be investigated.”
‘Defence depts need clean-up’
With several Defence Estates officials allegedly involved in the Adarsh Housing scam, Defence Minister A K Antony made it clear on Wednesday that the department needs to be “cleaned up” and that a new chief has been appointed with this purpose, PTI reports from New Delhi.
The defence minister also rejected BJP leader Jaswant Singh’s contention that the CBI inquiry into the scam would dampen the morale of the armed forces, saying the recommendation for such a step came from Army Chief General V K Singh himself.