Archives
CBI - A Caged Parrot
Thus when on the 8th of May, 2013, the Supreme Court described CBI as a ‘caged parrot’ that speaks in ITS master’s voice; everyone bit their lips.
Hardly anybody could complain that the judiciary was crossing the limits and even on the part of Congress loose canon, Digvijaya Singh the remarks against THE Supreme Court observations came only as an afterthought. And notably, the Congress party distanced itself cautiously from its General Secretary. In other words, there was little to dispute that the CBI was being misused.
In fact, the alleged abuse of the CBI has been the hallmark of Dr. Manmohan Singh, especially since 2009 under UPA-2. “The CBI has been to the UPA-2 like the twelfth and thirteenth key players in a cricket match against Pakistan when Pakistani umpires ruled the roost. The two umpires never allowed Pakistanis to loose the match. Similarly, Congress-led UPA has always been on the winning side,” acidly remarked one MP from Lalu Prasad’s RJD.
Another lawmaker from the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav also echoes this when he says, “Right from 2009, our party has faced the hidden but crystal clear pressure. We just could not withdraw support to the Manmohan Singh Government.” The reference is obviously to the disproportionate asset cases against Mulayam Singh Yadav pending with the CBI.
From Lalu Prasad to Mayawati of BSP everyone now seems to have faced the CBI music and accordingly ‘changed their political tune’. Thus, everyone concerned and interested about Indian politics can clearly understand how and why - for days, none other than country’s most powerful man, the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh was stonewalling his handpicked Law Minister Ashwani Kumar.
| The CBI has been to the UPA-2 like the twelfth and thirteenth key players in a cricket match against Pakistan when Pakistani umpires ruled the roost. |
The Supreme Court had remarked in an adverse manner on the 8th of May, 2013 that the Law Minister had no business to scrutinize the CBI status report on the Coalgate scam that had pointed fingers – at least according to the opposition parties – towards the Prime Minister himself.
“The CBI investigations have to be independent,” the Supreme Court observed and made it clear that it will step in if the CBI was not made an autonomous body. “The job of CBI is not to interact with Government officials but to interrogate to find the truth,” the court said.
It not only described the CBI as a ‘caged parrot’, the apex court bench headed by Justice R M Lodha went on to state that “It’s a sordid saga that there are many masters and one parrot”.
The apex court expressed displeasure at the Government’s interference in the coal allocation probe report and said “The heart of the report was changed on the suggestions of the Government officials.” It said that it needs to be ensured that the CBI functions free of all external pressures and asked the Government to make the investigating agency impartial.
But here lies the prize catch; and as Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley remarked, there’s no need to go back to the old debate. The debate is old and truly the Government response to the puzzle is perhaps older. The unsaid refrain being, ‘No Government in power is willing to give up such powers’.
R. K. Raghavan, a former CBI Director, elucidates well about the ‘fetters’ which harm the professionalism of the CBI. “The agency by a mandatory clause has to seek sanction for investigation and prosecution from the very ministry whose officials it wishes to proceed against. Due to this flaw, firstly the sanction is delayed arbitrarily and even if sanction is granted, a large portion of evidence is suppressed and destroyed easily,” he says.
The politicians like Mayawati of BSP and Lalu Prasad say they have been victims of CBI abuse under both the Congress and the BJP. Raghavan endorses the spirit of their words and maintains that there is hardly any requirement for changes in the law but rather the implementation is an issue even as there is need for checks and balances to ensure that institutions are managed effectively.
Genesis of CBI abuse:
The genesis of CBI abuse lies in its constant government (regime) - sensitive approach. Perhaps except for the then CBI Chief Joginder Singh when H D Deve Gowda and later I K Gujral were in power, CBI hunted Lalu Prasad bitterly even as the Bihar politician was in the same party (Janata Dal) as the two Prime Ministers.
|
Heart of the Coalgate Scam The three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court lamented that no substantial progress has been made in the coal scam probe. “How on earth could the Joint Secretaries of the PMO and the Coal Ministry attend the meeting, see the report and suggest changes to it,” the court asked and even slammed Attorney General Mr. G E Vahanvati and former Additional Solicitor General Mr. Haren Raval for misleading the court over the sharing of CBI’s status report. “It pains us to see the credibility of the CBI getting affected. The CBI is doing a collaborative probe.” Never in the history of any investigating agency, have such strong words come from the highest court of the land. |
Besides this, in the last 2 decades, CBI probed big ticket cases involving Rajiv Gandhi in the Bofors scandal and the HDW submarine bribery case, P V Narasimha Rao in the JMM bribery scandal and the Lakhubhai Pathak cheating case; L K Advani in the Babri demolition case; and others like Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati and several top politicians – but in no case can it be said that it could nail the guilty.
In April 2010, the Yadav duo of Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh had initially planned once to vote against the UPA-2 during a censure motion. But ‘practical compulsions’ compelled them to backtrack. “Any party which has pending cases with the CBI against its leaders would not like to be seen in total confrontation with a Government of the day when its stability is vulnerable,” a RJD MP had caustically remarked. Ultimately both the parties extended a helping hand to the Dr. Manmohan Singh Government by staging a walkout during the crucial voting. A number of times since then these acts were reenacted. From time to time even Mayawati was forced to support the Government.
| The agency (CBI) by a mandatory clause has to seek sanction for investigation and prosecution from the very ministry whose officials it wishes to proceed against. |
The BSP supremo Mayawati, facing the Taj corridor scam of 2003 registered during the NDA regime in December 2012 after initial objections even bailed out the Government on the FDI debate. These had happened when Trinamool Congress had withdrawn support and the Government numbers were really on the borderlines.
SP Chief Mulayam Singh also has fewer options and thus has been bailing out the UPA despite the political call he faces not to do so.
During UPA-2, BJP has also alleged that the CBI was being selectively used against their party leaders including the high-profile case involving Narendra Modi’s trusted aide Amit Shah.
Where do we go from here?
Perhaps half a dozen times, leaders have favoured a full-scale debate on the misuse of the CBI. “Everything should be discussed” Lalu Prasad once told Eastern Panorama and in fact during the Lokpal debate, a considerable amount of time was granted on the ‘autonomy of CBI’. “But the Government is reluctant. It did not even properly consider our suggestions in the parliamentary select committee to make the appointment of CBI officials more transparent and credible,” says Arun Jaitley of the BJP.
He and other leaders like BJP Chief Rajnath Singh cite that even lately – after being pulled up by the Supreme Court – the CBI had falsely implicated former Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria. The same CBI, they say wasted no time in almost giving a clean chit to the much disgraced Railway Minister P K Bansal.
