'Govts not permanent', Anand Sharma warns bureaucrats

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma on Friday warned bureaucrats of dire consequences when the government changes after the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. He was responding to the CBI raid on the residences of former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

"We are warning and cautioning all concerned not to exceed their brief or take any action outside the ambit of the law of the land in furtherance of the government's sinister agenda," the senior Congress leader said.

The senior Congress leader said democracies do not function like that and only fascist governments take such actions. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a mindset of targeting his political opponents by defaming them with the objective of muzzling the voice of the opposition and to tarnish the image of their tall leaders, he told reporters.

Sharma also said the "ill-will" in the mind of the prime minister and BJP chief Amit Shah is clear and the timing is also very clear.

"All officials must hear this. Governments do not have any permanency. There are few weeks left for the general elections to begin. It is certain this govt is rattled, Prime Minister is staring at an imminent defeat and that’s why these actions," he said in a press conference in New Delhi.

Once the new government resumes office, all the officials would be held accountable, he said.

"When the new govt resumes office, all such actions which have been at the behest of the political masters of today to harass, intimidate, frame and defame, even the charges, they will be held to account and they will have to answer," the 66-year-old former minister added.

Earlier on Friday, the CBI raided the residences of Hooda in connection with alleged Gurugram land allocation irregularities.