Congress may field CBI officers: Narendra Modi

The BJP has been calling the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) an 'arm of Congress' and 'Congress Bureau of Investigation' after the nodal agency arrested former MoS for home Amit Shah for his alleged role in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case.

While addressing a gathering after inaugurating an overbridge connecting Isanpur, Maninagar and Vatwa here on Thursday, chief minister Narendra Modi continued his tirade against the CBI, calling it 'Congress's extended arm and saying that "in the upcoming civic elections in the state, Congress will not contest the elections by putting up contenders from Congress party for the post of corporators, but will instead contest the election with CBI officials."

"But I am confident that Gujarat's people will defeat the CBI men also and their efforts will not succeed," he said. The comment won loud applaud from hundreds of people in a small pandal prepared near the end of the newly inaugurated over-bridge in the Ghodasar area.

Interestingly, Modi continued snapping at the Congress and CBI without mentioning the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case or his one-time close aide Amit Shah's arrest by CBI for his alleged role in the encounter. Surprisingly, Modi did not look moved or disturbed by Shah's arrest and spoke in his old, inimitable style while addressing the people.

Modi slammed 'Delhi Sultanate'  for adopting a vote bank policy that is 'dividing the country into many pieces'. "Dilli wants to take away whatever 2 % to 5% rights Dalits are given with the help of reservation quota. Dilli wants to share OBC quota and is conspiring to give the rights to people who are involved in conversions. They are trying to loot rights of OBCs who want to work hard and work for the country's upliftment," he said. He said that Congress is doing this because they clearly think about their vote bank and not about the country's progress.

On newspaper reports of a scam in the NREGA in Gujarat, Modi said, it was he who had suggested that the scam be investigated, when he attended a meeting convened by the prime minister Manmohan Singh recently in Delhi.

"In the bharat sarkar report signed by the PM, a paragraph said that there is a Rs 40,000 cr scam going on in NREGA. And they had also written that they did not expect that corruption would enter the NREGA so fast. After reading it aloud, I suggested that a proper joint parliamentary committee should look into the scam and the guilty should be punished. When I said that, I meant investigation for all states but on my return from Delhi, I learnt that reports of a scam in Gujarat NREGA were out!" he exclaimed.