The CBI continued to be at the receiving end of the Government for the second consecutive day on Tuesday. After Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, it was Finance Minister P Chidambaram who came down heavily on the investigating agency and on the CAG for “overstepping” their limits.
He said the CBI should not question Government policies and should respect the line that divides policy making and policing. Maintaining that the CBI sometimes pretends to be helpless when it pleads for autonomy and powers, he made it clear the CBI will get functional autonomy but will continue to be a part of the executive.
Chidambaram’s attack on the CBI and the CAG came on a day the BJP hit out at the PM saying instead of assuring transparency in policy and implementation, he is trying to pressurise CBI against investigating corruption under the garb of policy. “Unfortunately, there are a number of cases where investigating agencies and other authorities like CAG have overstepped their limits and attempted to convert bonafide executive decisions into either crime or abuse of authority,” Chidambaram said at the Golden Jubilee function of CBI here. He was delivering the key note address on “building a criminal justice system to deal with financial crime”.
Chidambaram cautioned the investigating agencies suggesting that it was “not their business” to lay down the rule of conduct or presume the rule of conduct. “Even where a rule has been prescribed, if there is a policy behind that rule, it is not the business of the investigating agency to question the wisdom of the policy or to suggest a different policy that would be better in the view of the investigating agency,” he said.
The Finance Minister said as long as there are reasons given in support of a decision, such reasons should ordinarily rule out any criminal state of mind. Chidambaram’s view holds importance against the backdrop of recent controversies over allotment of coal blocks and spectrum among others. The CAG had recently questioned the policies adapted by the Government on these. Both the issues are being probed by the CBI.
The Finance Minister said the investigating agencies should tread carefully before it reaches the conclusion that a business or commercial decision taken on the basis of available facts amounts to a crime. He referred to certain nomenclatures given to the CBI — caged parrot or the Congress Bureau of Investigation — and claimed these were myths about the agency. Chidambaram also noted that sometimes the CBI itself pretends to be a “helpless victim” when it pleads for more powers and greater autonomy.The Finance Minister, heading the Group of Ministers on CBI’s autonomy, said the Government will give functional autonomy to it but the agency would be governed by the general rules of the executive government. He did not forget to remind the CBI to remember they are part of the executive government.
“I want you to remember that you are part of executive... There is only one executive government. We cannot create more branches of the executive government. We cannot create sub-branches of executive government. There is a judiciary, there is an executive, there is a legislature. The BJP expressed disappointment over PM’s speech at a CBI conference on Monday and alleged he was trying to pressurise the agency against probing corruption cases on the ground that it should not investigate policy issues.
“The country is disappointed with the speech of the Prime Minister at the CBI conference yesterday. Instead of assuring that there will be transparency in policy and implementation, he is trying to pressurise CBI against investigating corruption under the garb of policy,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said here.
Party vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi also hit out at the PM saying why he was silent on the CBI’s functioning when it was used to target leaders of the opposition. “The Congress gave supari to the CBI for opposition leaders and the agency acted on that. The PM never spoke on it. When the agency has exposed the misdeeds of the UPA, he is getting worried,” Naqvi said.