Political Diary

New Delhi, 20 November 2018

Two States Ban CBI

IS THE TIDE TURNING?

By Poonam I Kaushish

What is it about the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that has the Opposition see red? That raises the hackles of netas who accuse it of hit-ins and false cases at the behest of its political mai baaps to settle scores with opponents. But has the CBI’s fatal attraction for playing political hand maiden blown up in its face? Has archenemy finally caught up with it?

Questions which come to mind post two extraordinary and unprecedented order of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee who withdrew ‘general consent’ to the CBI to exercise its powers and jurisdiction in the State conferred by Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946. Succinctly the agency stands banished from the States to investigate Central Government officials, public undertakings and private persons under various laws, including the Prevention of Corruption Act   as it derives its authority from the Act.

The orders come in the wake of a running battle between Naidu-Mamata and the Central Government (post his exit from the NDA in March and Mamata’s ambition to lead the anti-Modi opposition) whereby they have accused the latter of using the CBI to target them and their  Ministers.  The recent raids by Income Tax authorities on some business establishments, run by those close to the TDP have left Naidu red-faced. Add to this, he is projecting himself as the key in Opposition unity to take on Prime Minister Modi. Mamata is bristling from the CBI zeroing in on Trinamool Party leaders in the Sharda scam and various other scandals and avers that the agency has ‘lost its credibility.’

The genesis of Naidu’s order is the vortex of internal war between CBI Director Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana wherein Andhra controversial businessman Satish Babu Sana, is at its heart over an alleged bribery case within the agency, along-with another TDP MP and  close associate of Naidu industrialist CM Ramesh among many more.

Remember, Sana is the pivotal figure in the sordid drama who reportedly bribed both CBI Director and Special Director by turn. It was his complaint that he paid a bribe of Rs two crores to Asthana to be “spared” in the case against meat exporter Moin Qureshi the CBI was investigating.

The agency registered an FIR against Asthana who complained to the Cabinet Secretariat that Sana had paid Rs two crores to the CBI Director to avoid his arrest through TDP MP and CM Ramesh. Sana has now complained again against Asthana and accused him of getting his statement “falsified” by a Deputy SP to “frame” the CBI Director in the Moin Qureshi case. Both officers were sent packing by the Government last month.

The plot gets murkier with Asthana alleging that Ramesh mediated on behalf of Sana and   Ramesh has alleged that there was a high-level conspiracy hatched by BJP President Amit Shah to frame him. He alleged the Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate carried out raids against his companies and claimed financial irregularities in his record. For the record, three more TDP politicians are under the CBI scanner in the Qureshi case.

Either which way it holds out dangerous portends. It is the first time two States have cocked a snook at the Central Government albeit indirectly through its agency.

They have a point. As it open secret that the CBI’s trustworthiness has reached the lowest ebb wherein political interference and its working style is being sharply questioned. If during the UPA the BJP had called it Congress Bureau of Investigation and a caged parrot vis-à-vis the coal scam in 2013, now the boot is on the other foot with the Congress calling it the BJP Bureau of Investigation. BJP Karnataka strongman Yeddyurappa convicted for taking money from mining companies in 2011 is acquitted by the CBI. 

Sadly, it is a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black. Both Parties have used, misused and abused the CBI for political gains. During the UPA Government the Congress allegedly kept BSP’s Mayawati and SP’s Mulayam Singh in check by showing the threat of the CBI cases against them. Similar accusation is now being leveled against Modi and the BJP who are being accused of selective targeting of political opponents. Reportedly, the CBI is examining ways to reopen Mayawati’s cases as she is charting a separate course in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan in the ongoing assembly polls.

Indeed, the CBI has always served as a hand maiden to successive Governments to dance to its tune. A toothless tiger to help friends settle political scores with opponents. Thereby, raising serious doubts about its honesty and integrity of purpose to weed out the corrupt. Consequently, the system becomes self-perpetuating whereby a threatened political elite have given more and more powers to the CBI to get their way and have their say. 

The CBI too has adopted a brazenly opportunistic policy of playing safe with Governments of the day and its willingness and commitment to serve their mai baaps interest for post retirement lollipops. 

Alas, in the messy marsh of accusations everyone seems to have forgotten that the authority of any law enforcement agency rests not so much on its legal powers but on the mystique that surrounds it in the minds of offenders of law. With the intractable damage to that mystique by the current controversy, the CBI now is no longer that premier investigation agency but a self-destructive and calamitous monster.

Raising a moot point: What clout will it wield in the minds of offenders of different hues? What will be the fate of CBI cases in courts? With what face will a CBI prosecutor or investigating officer face a court of law? Which IPS officer would wish to join the CBI on deputation?

It remains to be seen whether Naidu-Mamata’s action would result in a showdown with the Centre and a renewed debate on the CBI’s independence, autonomy and its accountability. What should be the balance between the two? Along-with the terms of Executive management or control? How do we enable the agency to perform its functions with speed and prudence?

Pertinently, a Parliamentary Standing Committee report on the “Working of the CBI” in 2011, which continues to gather dust, recommended it be made an ``enforcement agency” and be given “independent and autonomous’’ status to prevent political interference in its functioning.

It also mooted it be granted power to investigate and prosecute through a separate statute called the Central Bureau of Intelligence and Investigation Act. And given the same status as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the US to allow it to independently take up cases of high-tech crime.

In all western democracies, investigative agencies have undergone huge and numerous makeovers and evolved over a period of time. Therefore, we need simply to set CBI free.

What next? The time has come to make the investigation body a top-class outfit. Our leaders have to desist from subjecting the CBI to bureaucratic prescriptions of effecting economy in administration. India needs a sleek CBI that acts without favours and prejudice.

At the end of the day, the powers-that-be must desist from playing havoc with the CBI. They need to answer two pointed questions: Will the CBI be guided by the law of the land only or by the Government of the day? Questionably, who will cast the first stone? Kiski laathi aur kiski bhains? ---- INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)