Modi-Appointed New CBI Interim Chief, Nageswara Rao, Was Transferred For Making Communal Speech: Odisha CPI(M)

M Nageswara Rao, appointed as the interim CBI chief by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had reportedly made “communal comments and questioned the Constitution’s bias” during a 1988 speech, alleged Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s Odisha wing.

CPI(M) Odisha state committee secretary Ali Kishor Patnaik on Friday told ET that during a speech at an event to mark International Human Rights Day, Rao had “accused Islamists, Christians and Marxists as the main threat to human rights.” Patnaik had reportedly filed a PIL in the Odisha High Court regarding the same in 1988.

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Patnaik was then the CPI(M) secretary for Ganjam District. Rao, who was the vice chairman of the Behrampur Development Authority at the time, was transferred out, after which Patnaik did not pursue the case.

Patnaik’s petition said that Rao had made “inflammatory and communal speeches” that would fuel communal tension. It added that “He (Rao) also did not hesitate to interpret the Constitution in his own way and accused the framers of the Constitution as ‘pro-minorities’.”

Patnaik called Rao, “an ideological friend of BJP”.

Rao was appointed the CBI interim director at around 2 am on Wednesday. CBI director Alok Verma, who had filed an FIR against Special Director Rakesh Asthana, was sent on indefinite leave via a sudden order by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Verma challenged his removal in the Supreme Court, alleging that which ordered a Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) inquiry in the matter and said that the interim chief, Rao, shall not take any major policy decisions for the time.

Verma had told the Supreme Court that divesting him of his powers “overnight” by the Centre amounts to interference in the independence of the agency whose probes against “high functionaries” may not take the line desirable to the government.

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