<div>Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Tuesday accused the Narendra Modi government of misusing the CBI to settle political scores.<br /><br />She said this in the wake of the investigative agency’s decision to quiz her in connection with the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam.<br /><br />Describing the move as “political vendetta”, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said she has no connection with the scam that runs into Rs 10,000 crore. “The BJP, which is trying to use the CBI, should give up such tactics as such attempts have cost them dearly earlier,” she told reporters here.<br /><br />She also said the decision to question her four years after the scam came to light raises questions. “I do not succumb to pressure, I do not bend,” she said adding the decision could be the handiwork of some “casteist officers” who are against Dalits and backward castes. The Centre, however, rejected her allegations. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the CBI works on the basis of proof. “There is no need to draw any other conclusion (from the agency’s actions),”he said.<br /><br />CBI Director Anil Sinha said the agency will proceed “as per requirement”. The agency had on Monday called Mayawati for examination on two specific issues related to the NRHM scam: bifurcation of the Uttar Pradesh health and family welfare department and appointment of district project officers considered key to the scam.<br /><br />Huge sums had been siphoned off by politicians, bureaucrats and doctors from funds meant for the NRHM, aimed to provide health care facilities to rural people. There were also irregularities in the supply of medicines and medical equipment.<br /><br />Addressing a press conference here, Mayawati said the CBI is free to investigate her but questioned the timing of the move, saying it is a divert attention from the “failure” of the NDA government to fulfil promises made to the people.<br /><br />She said even before the CBI had informed her of the news, it was leaked to the media to “demoralise me and my party workers ahead of Bihar assembly elections”.<br /></div>
<div>Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Tuesday accused the Narendra Modi government of misusing the CBI to settle political scores.<br /><br />She said this in the wake of the investigative agency’s decision to quiz her in connection with the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam.<br /><br />Describing the move as “political vendetta”, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said she has no connection with the scam that runs into Rs 10,000 crore. “The BJP, which is trying to use the CBI, should give up such tactics as such attempts have cost them dearly earlier,” she told reporters here.<br /><br />She also said the decision to question her four years after the scam came to light raises questions. “I do not succumb to pressure, I do not bend,” she said adding the decision could be the handiwork of some “casteist officers” who are against Dalits and backward castes. The Centre, however, rejected her allegations. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the CBI works on the basis of proof. “There is no need to draw any other conclusion (from the agency’s actions),”he said.<br /><br />CBI Director Anil Sinha said the agency will proceed “as per requirement”. The agency had on Monday called Mayawati for examination on two specific issues related to the NRHM scam: bifurcation of the Uttar Pradesh health and family welfare department and appointment of district project officers considered key to the scam.<br /><br />Huge sums had been siphoned off by politicians, bureaucrats and doctors from funds meant for the NRHM, aimed to provide health care facilities to rural people. There were also irregularities in the supply of medicines and medical equipment.<br /><br />Addressing a press conference here, Mayawati said the CBI is free to investigate her but questioned the timing of the move, saying it is a divert attention from the “failure” of the NDA government to fulfil promises made to the people.<br /><br />She said even before the CBI had informed her of the news, it was leaked to the media to “demoralise me and my party workers ahead of Bihar assembly elections”.<br /></div>
