Congress workers stage protest over CBI row

Bengaluru: Congress workers Friday staged a protest in front of the CBI office here following the party’s call for a nationwide agitation against the Centre’s action to divest CBI Director Alok Verma of his powers and send him on leave.

However, MLAs and corporators did not take part in the protest in the city though the party high command had directed legislators to participate in the agitation.

The only prominent face was party’s national general secretary and Karnataka in-charge K C Venugopal.

Karnataka is ruled by the Congress-JD(S) coalition.

Defending the absence of senior party functionaries,Congress spokesperson Subhash Agarwal told PTI the agitation was only symbolic and hence, the presence of MLAs and corporators did not matter much.

“We only wanted to convey a message to the Centre, which we successfully did. The agitation started at about 11.30 am and went on for about one-and-half hours,” he said.

Meanwhile, former chief minister Siddaramaiah Friday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for turmoil in the CBI, alleging it was another manifestation of his “autocratic” rule.

Running a sarcastic hashtag campaign “Modi Se CBI Bachao,” Siddaramaiah tweeted, “The recent events related (to) #CBI is just another manifestation of @narendramodi’s autocratic rule. @BJP4India feels that they are entitled to destroy the democratic pillars. Ppl (People) are just clueless about the lawlessness & have lost faith & confidence in the system. #ModiSeCBIBachao.” 

Stepping in to tackle the unprecedented crisis in the CBI, the Centre had stripped Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana, who are locked in a bitter feud, of their powers and sent them on leave.