Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday accused the Centre of adopting double standard and questioned its commitment to rule of law going by the manner in which the NDA government, BJP and RSS have put up a united face to defend External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in the Lalit Modi controversy.
"Going by manner in which the NDA government, BJP and RSS have closed ranks to defend Swaraj, it is clear that the BJP has a double standard in enforcement of rule of law against those people it likes and those it does not, "he told reporters on the sidelines of Janata Durbar at the chief minister's official residence.
Kumar alleged that in case of dear ones, the BJP goes all out in helping out such people even if they have committed a crime, but strong action is taken against those people it does not like.
He said as far as he was concerned the saffron party has made it abundantly clearly that it pursues a policy of double standard in enforcement of rule of law.
"Apna admi kuch bhi ho, use bachana hai..madad karna hai (In the case of own people, they must be rescued, helped out)," the Bihar Chief Minister said and charged the NDA government with adopting a double standard despite claiming itself to be proponent of rule of law.
"Tell me in how many cases the humanitarian ground has been invoked?" Kumar asked and described as 'dangerous situation' being created by those who have rallied behind the beleaguered External Affairs Minister in toeing her line that she had helped out the former IPL Commissioner, a fugitive in the money laundering case being pursued against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) since 2010.
The entire government, including the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, stands in dock after revelation that Swaraj had helped out Modi by putting in words with the MP Keith Vaz to get travel documents issued for the former IPL Commissioner by the British authorities to visit Portugal for treatment of his
ailing wife in 2014, the senior JD(U) leader claimed.
"Everybody in the government, including the Prime Minister must have been in know of things about the External Affairs Minister's helping hands to the fugitive Modi," Kumar said in counter to claim by senior ministers in the NDA government that the PM was not aware of the matter before it leaked out in the media on Sunday.
"A person who monitors his ministers to minutest detail and asks one minister clad in jeans while travelling by a plane to get down and change his clothes, cannot be expected to be not knowing what his senior minister is doing," the Chief Minister asked.
Describing the expose about Swaraj's helping hand to the absconding former IPL Commissioner, he said only preliminary details have come out in the media reports and claimed that much more will come out in the matter in due course of time.
Apparently hinting that Swaraj's conduct could be a setback to the case being pursued by the ED against Modi, he claimed that Swaraj must not have consulted the agency, a part of the Union Finance Ministry, before helping out the former IPL Commissioner.
Kumar said that it was not clear to him whether the External Affairs Minister had taken the consent of her colleague and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in helping out Modi.
Visibly basking under the NDA government's embarrassment over the controversy involving a senior minister, the Chief Minister said that the government's claim of transparency in governance has been exposed and said that the episode was a proclamation of the central government's work culture.
Reiterating that the entire government was involved in the controversy surrounding the External Affairs Minister, Kumar refrained from demanding her resignation saying that whatever he has said was about the controversy.
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