Release CBI from Government’s clutches
Central to the controversy that has engulfed the Congress-led UPA Government after the Central Bureau of Investigation shared a status report on the coal block allocation scam inquiry with Union Minister for law and Justice Ashwani Kumar and other senior Government officials, is the lack of functional autonomy that the CBI has. If the probe agency's Director, Mr Ranjit Sinha, did not firmly turn down Mr Kumar's instructions to reveal the report, it is because he and the agency which he represents have been for long used to being summoned by Ministers and ordered to share vital material that the latter have no business seeing, let alone making amendments to. This explains the facile argument which Mr Sinha offered in his defence, namely, that he showed the report not to an “outsider” but to the law Minister with whom the agency has regular interactions. Similarly, the Government too has made it a habit to interfere in the investigations of the country's premier probe agency, more so when politically sensitive issues are involved, because it believes the law gives it the right to do so. It, therefore, sees little reason why there should be such a hullabaloo over the matter. look at how Mr Kumar has brushed away the outrage by claiming that his Ministry and the CBI share a “client-lawyer relationship” and that meetings between them are the order of the day. Of course, given the context in which the controversial meeting took place, these explanations are not only fit to be trashed but they should also propel the Government to establish mechanisms which will release the CBI from the clutches of the executive. But for that to happen, the UPA regime must open lines of communication with the Opposition and formulate legislations which will unshackle the investigation agency.
Unfortunately, the Manmohan Singh-led Government has chosen to confront the Opposition by shielding its law Minister, in the process shutting the doors on a meaningful discussion with the political parties that do not form part of the UPA. Unless the executive takes the initiative, the CBI cannot be made independent. No amount of posturing by the Supreme Court can bring about any change. It must be remembered that the apex court has been demanding freedom for the investigation agency for years now, but in vain. From the Jain hawala case of 1997 to the coal block allocation scam, the apex court has repeatedly expressed its desire to free the CBI from Government control. The brazen manner in which this Government has misused the investigation agency goes to show that the court's observations have fallen on deaf ears.
The issue at hand does not call for scoring political points but a coming together of political parties to tackle the crisis. Unfortunately, the Government of the day is not keen on liberating the CBI. Had it really been sincere about providing functional autonomy to the agency, it would have incorporated the amendments that the Opposition had suggested in the lokpal Bill, 2011, to bring the investigation arm of the agency under the proposed lokpal. But it’s still not too late. The Government must use the crisis to make the CBI as free as the Central Vigilance Commission and the Election Commission of India.