'Baseless, no logic': Rajnath Singh rubbishes oppn's 'misuse of probe agencies' allegations

Defence minister Rajnath Singh

Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Friday dismissed the opposition's allegations levelled against the BJP around the misuse of central probe agencies as baseless and lacking sound reasoning.

Asserting that the Modi government just wants to make India corruption free, he told Network18 Group Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi in an exclusive interview, "There's no logic in the opposition's allegation that central probe agencies are being misused by the BJP. We are working towards wiping out corruption entirely".

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"The agencies are doing their work. We want to root out the corruption. If not, we want to find a way out."

Rajnath said that the opposition is even moving the court in various cases related to corruption but has not been granted relief. "They haven't got any relief from the court. Does that mean the government is controlling the judiciary as well?" he asked.

Several Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc leaders have accused the BJP of misusing the central agencies (including ED & CBI) by registering cases against opposition leaders and putting them behind bars ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

On March 21, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested in a money laundering case related to the Delhi excise policy. He is currently lodged in Tihar Jail. K Kavitha, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader and daughter of former Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao, was also arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the liquor policy case.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi too denied the opposition's allegations and said that central agencies operate independently.

"Neither do we obstruct nor direct their (agencies) actions. They work independently, and this is evaluated by the scales of the judiciary," he stressed.

Further on the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the defence minister reiterated the party's target of 400 seats.

"We are completely confident that the NDA will win cross 400 seats," he said.

He reasoned that this claim was not made out of thin air, but the party's firm belief in the trust shown by voters.

"This is a very big number and we are saying this because of the way the BJP, NDA and our Prime Minister Modi ji have received people’s trust, we are completely confident that the party will get 370 seats and the NDA will get more than 400 seats.