NEW DELHI: The BJP on Tuesday termed Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s comments on the misuse of the CBI by political parties in power as a confessional statement made by the ruling party.

“This is a confessional statement by the ruling party. This statement reminds me of the statement made by Indira Gandhi when asked about corruption in her government that it was a worldwide phenomenon. Today’s statement is also on the same line,” BJP leader Arun Jaitley said here.

Rahul had earlier in the day said that every party would pressurise the institutions under it while in power according to its wish when his comments on misuse of the CBI were sought.

“This is a systemic issue. This is not the issue of an agency. Every party, when in power, could pressurise its institutions. It is a fact. In general, when the BJP comes to power in Rajasthan, it tries to push its people into such institutions. When the Congress comes to power, it pushes its people. It is a reality of Indian politics,” he said.

Jaitley reiterated that if the NDA was voted to power, it would set up a commission to look into the allegations against the CBI.

On Rahul’s comments that the Left would support the Congress after the elections, Jaitley said that the Left parties were competent themselves to say that if required.

“Despite my differences with the Left, I think that the Left has not appointed a spokesperson in the Congress. The Left parties themselves are competent enough,” he said.

The BJP also welcomed the statement made by Rahul praising Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. “We welcome his statement.

It is a testimonial to Nitish,” Jaitley said.

He added that had the statement been made two weeks earlier, Lalu Prasad would have lost all the seats in Bihar.

Rahul said that Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar had done reasonably well for their states and he respected them.

“During the BJP’s tenure at the Centre, the Attorney General had referred the Babri Masjid demolition case against L K Advani to Chennai-based lawyer N Natarajan on the ground that he was the counsel who has been appearing for the CBI in the Babri Masjid case since 1992,” Jaitley said answering to a question based on the report published in a newspaper that the case was referred to an outsider by the Attorney General.