MIDNIGHT ACTION ON CBI REVEALS RIFTS IN POWER CORRIDORS

The fight between Verma and Asthana started over petty issues and then blew up to become an ego battle.

The midnight clampdown by the Narendra Modi government on the Lodhi Road headquarters of the Central Bureau of Investigation, sending director Alok Verma and special director Rakesh Asthana on leave, has shaken the power balance at many levels and in many ways in New Delhi.

First of all, the brute action was designed to show Prime Minister Modi’s fabled grip on the bureaucracy. However, even those who supported the clampdown totally, think that the inevitable action came too late in the day. CBI’s own senior officers have inflicted a huge damage to the agency, leaving other officers wondering how to salvage a situation where the country’s premier anti-corruption agency has come to be seen as completely corrupt. Those who opposed any harsh action by government on a so-called independent institution like CBI, think that under Narendra Modi’s watch the institution further lost its remaining credibility, for which the Prime Minister’s Office cannot escape blame.

However, the government thinks after the sweeping action, its “control over the CBI” will be better than before.

The three-bench Supreme Court judgement of 26 October, which heard the petitions against the government’s midnight action, has brought some relief to the PMO in its damage control exercise. The judges didn’t make any comments or pass any strictures against the government for sending the CBI chief on leave. The CBI chief enjoys a fixed two-year term, due to the Vineet Narayan judgement in the hawala case. The government took a legal risk at some moral cost. But the Supreme Court did not react instantly on the legal validity of the director’s removal. In the fight between Verma and Asthana, it was clear that Asthana enjoyed larger support of the establishment. When Verma was sent on leave, essentially, it was done to buy time as he retires in January.

The midnight action could have exploded in the government’s face, but the Supreme Court saved the day for it. It didn’t hear Verma’s lawyer Fali Nariman’s plea to weigh the unprecedented decision of sending Verma on leave in view of the Vineet Narayan judgement. The Supreme Court also did not heed the voice of anti-government forces, including Prashant Bhushan, who tried to paint the “CBI versus CBI” fight as a fight between “honest Verma” and “corrupt Asthana”. The judgement of 26 October has allowed the Chief Vigilance Commission to inquire into the charges against Verma inside two weeks, under the supervision of noted jurist and retired judge, A. K. Patnaik. This virtually means that the Supreme Court has put Verma, and to some extent the office of the CVC, under Patnaik’s watch.

In the unfolding event, Asthana, who was pushed to the wall because of the FIR filed by his own organisation under Verma’s instruction, has got the space to turn the tables on Verma.

The climax of the VermaAsthana fight will unfold in the coming 20 days. Verma will have to steadfastly see that the FIR filed against Asthana does not lose steam; while Asthana will ensure, behind the scenes, that enough evidence is presented to the CVC against Verma. Sources claim that Asthana has done his homework as his stakes are high. He wants to succeed Verma as CBI director, but his path to the post has become rocky because of the ugly spat, which has not only damaged the CBI, but also Asthana himself because of the allegations against him and the FIR. Another important fallout of the CBI battle is that overnight the fierce political fight between Subramanian Swamy and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is witnessing new contours. In the Swamy