New CBI Director must hit the ground running
Mr Anil Kumar Sinha has taken over as the new Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation at a time when the country's premier probe agency faces a crisis of credibility. His words and actions in the coming months will demonstrate his commitment to revamp this negative image.
Three positives are in his favour: His is a bipartisan appointment, with the Prime Minister, the leader of the Congress in the lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India having collectively decided on his name; he enjoys not only a relatively clean image but has also functioned in the CBI; and finally, the prestige of his agency is so down that it cannot possibly dip any further. In addition, he has a clear roadmap for the immediate future — to restore the people's and the Supreme Court's trust in the ongoing probes the CBI is conducting in the 2G Spectrum scam case, and get rid of the ‘caged parrot' indictment the court had bestowed on it in connection with the coal block allocation scam case.
All that Mr Sinha has to do is to allow investigations to proceed in a fair and transparent manner and not repeat the many mistakes his predecessor made. He should not, at any cost, be seen or perceived to be seen as, taking sides, whatever his personal opinion may be. But the new Director's challenges do not end with the 2G issue; there are many other sensitive cases the CBI is involved in where the possibility of extraneous pressures is enormous.
For instance, there is the Saradha chit fund irregularity. Regardless of the beliefs of political parties, he must ensure that the probe is conducted professionally and the truth is bared before the people. In doing so, he mustn't bother about baseless insinuations that he and his agency will face in the coming weeks and months. Mr Sinha also has the onerous task of re-shaping the structure of the agency — something that many experts have been asking for — in a bid to make the organisation more competent and equipped for the new challenges ahead. He has acknowledged on the day he took over that he is aware of the “challenges facing the agency and would work to strengthen the cause of justice, impartiality and integrity”. These are precisely the areas where the CBI has taken a blow.
Mr Sinha can take inspiration from his predecessors who have acquitted themselves creditably, given the constraints they worked under — several of these limitations do not, thankfully, apply any more, given the Supreme Court's active supervision over the last few years and the fact that his tenure is now fixed and that he has, at least on paper, a certain level of autonomy that others did not. Of course, he need not look to Mr Ranjit Sinha as an example, except for how a Director should not behave. The new Director has come with high expectations that usually follow a terrible period of demoralisation. He must not allow the opportunity to slip by.