Senior BJP leader and MP Subramanian Swamy on Thursday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “take a lesson” from the 2G verdict and start a war on corruption.

Calling the counsels of CBI and the ED lackadaisical, he said the Finance Ministry needs a “purge”, as many officials there are not enthusiastic about fighting corruption. Swamy was one of the crusaders against the alleged corruption in the Telecom Ministry during the UPA government and was a complainant on the 2G case.

He, however, said the verdict was not a setback. “They (the lawyers of ED and CBI) were not serious and the judge couldn’t figure out what they were trying to prove. This is a very big condemnation of the government controlling the case. Not only that, the judge says that in the beginning there was a lot of enthusiasm — that was when I was conducting the case. Then, after that, over a period of time, it got worsened,” he said.

Citing that former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi had welcomed the judgment, Swamy said he had protested when Rohatgi was appointed, as the former AG was the counsel for many of the accused in the case.

“These people should not be made law officers. A wrong signal will go that we are not serious about corruption,” he added.

He further said he had written a letter to Modi saying that in 2019, the public would hold the BJP accountable for what the government had done, “whether it’s black money coming from abroad or prosecuting the corrupt.”

“So now I think the Prime Minister must take up fighting corruption on a war footing and put aside those who are not so enthusiastic on fighting corruption. There are people in my party who are not very enthusiastic,” he said. “This is not a setback at all. This is an aberration where law officers were not serious about the case. I think the PM ought to take a lesson from this to set up a war-like council to fight corruption.

“Many officers in the Finance Ministry are not serious. Finance Ministry needs a purge and we must fight corruption on a war footing.”

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