At a time of when the government is under attach on charges of misuse of central agencies, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday backed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and said the country wants the corrupt should not be spared since corruption is the biggest obstacle in the path of justice and democracy.

Speaking on the occasion of Diamond Jubilee celebration of the CBI, the Prime Minister said the chief responsibility of the agency is to rid the country of corruption. “I know that the people against whom you are taking action are very powerful, they have been part of the government and system for years. Even today they are in power in some states, but you (CBI) have to focus on your work, no corrupt person should be spared,” Modi told the gathering of CBI and other senior officers here.

Compliments CBI

He complimented the CBI for instilling trust among common citizens through their years of work and skills. Even today when an unsolved case comes, a common accord, noted the PM Modi, emerges asking for the case to be handed over to CBI. “CBI’s name is on everyone’s lips. It is like a brand for truth and justice”, Narendra Modi remarked to acknowledge extraordinary feat of winning trust of the masses in its six-decade long journey.

He lamented that the country unfortunately got corruption as a legacy issue at the time of Independence and some nourished the malady. Taking a veiled jibe at the previous Congress regimes and its former PM Rajiv Gandhi, he recalled the litany of scams and the corresponding prevailing sense of impunity just a decade ago. “Even a Prime Minister once said, for every rupee sent out to the poor, only 15 paise reaches them”, Modi scoffed.

Direct benefit transfer

On the contrary, he gave instances of steps initiated during his tenure since 2014 to curb corruption. Giving the example of direct benefit transfer, Modi said the government has so far transferred 27 lakh crore to the poor and also stressed that based on the one rupee 15 paise theory, 16 lakh crore would have already disappeared.

He was of the view that India cannot develop (“Vikshit Bharat”) without professional and efficient institutions and this puts a huge responsibilty on the CBI. “Corruption is not an ordinary crime, it snatches the rights of the poor, it begets many other crimes, corruption is the biggest obstacle in the path of justice and democracy”, he observed.

The Prime Minister also inaugurated the newly constructed office complexes of the CBI at Shillong, Pune and Nagpur. He released a Postage Stamp and Commemorative Coin marking the Diamond Jubilee Celebration year of the CBI, and launched its official Twitter handle as well.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW