“Any deterioration in these organisations will also adversely impact democracy,” the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha said. She said CVC realised its powers after the CVC Act 2003 came into being and started working with new vigour. “But many a time this vigour of investigating agencies does not suit the ruling class. The rulers can be of central and state,” she said.
Addressing a session of All India Congress Committee (AICC) last month here, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said that growth rate had slowed down because clearances were not granted by bureaucrats to infrastructure projects for the fear of CAG and CVC.
“We agree that there are certain domestic reasons responsible for the slowdown in our growth rate.Infrastructure projects do not get expeditious clearances. Bureaucrats are hesitant to take decisions fearing that CVC and CAG will raise questions over their decisions,” he had said.
The government had said AG and other investigating agencies like CBI were sometimes overstepping their jurisdictions resulting in “policy paralysis”.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram had also in November last year come down heavily on investigating agencies and CAG for “overstepping” their limits by attempting to convert bonafide executive decisions into either crimes or abuse of authority. Referring to CVC's golden jubilee, Swaraj said 50 years is an important stage in an individual's life. It is a stage to think “what we lost, what we gained”.
“The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) was set up through a Parliamentary resolution in 1964. For about 40 years, CVC functioned under a Parliamentary resolution. But in 2003, it got a legal standing. I was a part of the government so I was involved in the process of framing the CVC Act 2003, then,” she said.
