lambasting the CBI, former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi on Tuesday said the Central probe agency had gained notoriety as “Government’s hatchet” and “Department of Dirty Tricks” which was clothed in “opacity” with perfume of “mystery”.
Gandhi was speaking at the 15th DP Kohli Memorial lecture where he also criticised Reliance for being a “parallel state”.
“I do not know of any country where one single firm exercises such power as brazenly, over the natural resources, financial resources, professional resources and, ultimately over human resources as the company of the Ambanis. From Ambedkar, who spoke of economic democracy to Ambani who represents a techno-commercial monopoly of unprecedented scale, is a far cry indeed,” he said at the function.
“let there be no doubt about one thing: The CBI has a very mixed image. Not all of it is flattering. It is seen as Government’s hatchet, rather than honesty’s ally. It is often called DDT — meaning not dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, the colourless, tasteless, odourless insecticide it should be, but the Department of Dirty tricks,” he said at the function where the entire CBI rank and file led by its Director Ranjit Sinha was present.
Sixty nine-year-old Gandhi, who is at present Chairman of Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS), said the perception about the CBI being a department of dirty tricks must change.
Gandhi, a former IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, said “The CBI is clothed in opacity, then ornamented by secrecy and finally perfumed by mystery.” Gandhi pointed out that for sometime the CBI had come under RTI purview and during that period “heavens did not fall” but the opacity, secrecy and mystery made it move out of the Act.
“This is a great pity. The CBI is about investigations into corruption and certain crimes. It is not security or intelligence agency,” he said while delivering a lecture on “Eclipse at Noon: Shadows over India’s Conscience”.
The lecture marked the formal closing of the year-long golden jubilee celebrations of CBI. “I will make a bold statement to say it will change, because the popular mood in the country in the matter of corruption has changed,” he said. He said the RTI-trained public is no longer going to take corruption as a standard feature of the administration. It will expect, prod and make the CBI be an instrument of change. The CBI is going to play a big role in the future of India’s public.
“The CBI has nothing to lose and everything to gain by partnering the people of India,” he said.
He said the CBI probes were often directed against very senior Government officials and politicians who wield great influence.
In a veiled attack on CBI in cases of booking senior bureaucrats like former Coal Secretary PC Parakh, he said, “There is justified criticism of CBI highhandedness and lack of sensitivity to loss of reputation of senior members of the bureaucracy against whom needless enquiries can get initiated.”
He said the CBI should be able to say another ‘No’ to in-service lollipops or a post-retirement cookie in the shape of a job.