Digvijay takes on judiciary over 'caged parrot' remark

New Delhi, May 13:

leader Digvijaya Singh on Monday took a dig at the

for its observations on

, triggering immediate reaction from BJP, which advised him to "learn and understand" why there were a "series of scams" in the UPA government instead of "blaming the judiciary".

"By calling CBI a parrot in cage, then a Central Administrative Bench in Bangalore calling the IB a chicken... Now I have a question to the people in general. Are we not belittling our institutions? That's it.

"I want you to respond. I will request you to try and get access to all those who are calling our institutions chicken or parrot. You should take reaction from them also," Singh, who is an AICC general secretary, told reporters here.

Singh's remarks came in backdrop of the recent stinging criticism of the CBI by the apex court that the investigating agency is a " caged parrot" of its masters.

The court had rapped the CBI for sharing the status report on coal allocation scam probe with law minister Ashwani Kumar and officials of PMO and coal ministry.

BJP lost no time in launching an attack on the Congress leader for "blaming the highest judiciary".

"If the morale of the CBI has been downgraded, it is only because of the rank abuse of the CBI by the government. CBI was deliberately not allowed to take up fair investigation.

"Otherwise the minister of his (UPA) government would not have sought to weaken the import of the CBI's entire investigations in the coalgate. Why it was done because the Prime Minister was involved in the coalgate scam," BJP leader Ravishankar Prasad alleged.

Holding that it is the duty of the SC to ensure a fair investigation in a "massive case of corruption", he said that "instead of blaming the highest judiciary, it is important for Digvijaya Singh to learn and understand as to why there are a series of scams one after another in this government and can we know that there will be no scam again in the coming months."

PTI