let CBI bring out the truth in sting operation
Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the Calcutta High Court's decision to order a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the Narada sting tapes, one should expect the truth to come out. The Mamata Banerjee Government in West Bengal had tried to brush the incident of the tapes showing bribes being accepted by some senior Trinamool Congress leaders, under the carpet, calling the entire episode a political conspiracy by the Bharatiya Janata Party to defame her party and Government. But she could not satisfactorily explain the role of her partymen. Her party leaders challenged the High Court's order in the apex court, hoping for relief, and did not get it. If the Trinamool Congress is so certain that it is being unfairly targeted, it should not have challenged the High Court's verdict; instead, it ought to have welcomed it as the truth would be out and it would stand vindicated — assuming that its leaders had done nothing wrong. The arguments it presented to the apex court were unconvincing. For instance, two of the country's senior-most lawyers, appearing on behalf of the Trinamool Congress leaders, said the CBI was under the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Government's control at the Centre. “Don't throw us to the lion by entrusting the probe to the CBI”, one of its lawyers remarked. If this position has to be appreciated, then the CBI can never be trusted as it remains under whichever regime rules the Centre. The country's premier investigation agency may as well wind up, then! The Bench was naturally stinging in its response when it showed the lawyer (who belongs to a national party) the mirror and retorted that the comment reflected the “expression of your experience in the (previous Government)”. The Trinamool Congress's plea for a Supreme Court-monitored Special Investigation Team inquiry, was summarily dismissed when the apex court said the CBI too could investigate under the High Court's supervision.
Mamata Banerjee and her team must understand that demeaning the CBI may serve their immediate political purpose, but in doing so they are undermining the very credibility of the country's leading probe agency. It's true that during the Congress-led UPA regime, the CBI had become, in the apex court's words, “a caged parrot”, but that doesn't mean the CBI has become untrustworthy for ever. Given a free hand, it has the capability to crack cases that lead to conviction. In any case, if the CBI probes the Narada case under the High Court's supervision, the Trinamool Congress should have no complaints. Besides, what has been ordered is just a preliminary inquiry. Rejecting the petitioners' plea that the State regime's agencies should have the first right to investigate, the Bench also noted that “sting operations are a tough job. Just imagine what the person has to undergo”. Finally, it's precisely because the State authorities had showed laxity in investigating the issue, that the High Court ordered a CBI probe.