Modi government crippling anti-corruption legislation: Congress

New Delhi, Aug 10 (IANS) The Congress on Thursday accused the Narendra Modi government of "systematically crippling" the anti-corruption legislation enacted by the UPA government and said it had not lived up to its assurance of fast-tracking criminal cases faced by BJP MPs.

Briefing reporters here, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi alleged that the Whistle Blowers Protection Act and Prevention of Corruption Act had been weakened and the Right to Information Act has been eroded.

"The government has a terrible track record of systematically crippling the anti-corruption legislation that the UPA government had set up," Singhvi said.

He said the Whistle Blowers Protection Act has been weakened by introducing a requirement that the information released must first be obtained by RTI.

Singhvi said the Prevention of Corruption Act has been weakened by making it easy to prosecute a coerced bribe giver but extremely difficult to prosecute a bribe taker.

"The electoral bonds is part of an elaborate scheme to smother accountability and transparency," he said.

Singhvi said the Prime Minister in his maiden speech in Parliament had said that he would fast-track criminal cases against MPs and promised to dispose of cases in a year.

"Three years have passed. The cases against sitting MPs and MLAs remain unresolved," he said.

Singhvi said "31 per cent of ministers in the BJP government face criminal cases and 18 per cent face serious criminal charges".