CBI not the only institution to have fissures at the top

Institutional integrity of the caged parrot was destroyed a long time ago.

And you thought that the Supreme Court by refining the process of appointment of Director, CBI, and guaranteeing him a fixed two-year tenure had insulated the premier investigating agency from the political and personal vicissitudes of those in control? The truth is simple. No institution howsoever welldesigned and constitutionally empowered can remain unsullied from the infirmities of the men and women entrusted with its running.

Let us face it. We the people who gave ourselves a Constitution back in 1950 have already amended it over a hundred times. It was claimed that the sacred document was a labour of love of those who had fought for Independence and had burnt the midnight oil to produce a document which in reality was a potpourri of all that was considered good in the western constitutions of the time. Yet, in over 225 years, the American Constitution has been amended a mere 27 times, while we in less than 70 years have already scored a century and show no sign of slowing down.

Ironically, the first amendment in the US safeguarded the freedom of the press, while our first clamped down on the freedom of press. What we are driving at is that whatever system of government you may devise, how well it runs depends crucially on the men and women running it. We invariably make a hash of things because of our flawed national character. For, we have come to privilege private gain over public interest. A public culture of good citizenship is yet to take root here.

Take the on-going tussle in the CBI. It shows no one, just no one, in good light. The self-styled warriors of the public good, people like Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhushan, cut a sorry figure defending Alok Verma, the benched CBI director, following his public feud with his number two, Rakesh Asthana. If Verma was unfit to head the CBI in January 2017, how come he is now an angel? The answer is easy. People like Bhushan and Shourie are not bothered as much about the CBI as they are obsessed with in their current political posture of bashing the Narendra Modi government. Any stone they can lay their hands on is good enough to aim at the Prime Minister. Small wonder, then, people have lost faith in the professional agitators hiding their private agendas behind a cloak of public weal.

Yes, Asthana has a dubious record. But nobody gave Verma a licence to wage vendetta against his immediate junior merely because he failed to get an officer of his own choice in his place. The way the energies of the CBI were misdirected by Verma and Asthana to target each other and slap false cases against one another did neither of them any credit. The government, in order to appear to be fair and evenhanded, sent them both on an all-paid leave in order to clear the mess. Only those blinded by their animus against the regime would question the removal of the two officers fighting like Kilkenny cats and heaping disgrace on the premier investigating agency.

There is a lot that is inherently wrong with the CBI. Despite its ever widening remit, it lacks a cadre of its own. It has become a parking place for officers in cooling off periods. Given the sophistication of white collar crimes, the financial heists in the digital age, the agency needs to be manned by specialists from various disciplines, including from the world of business and industry, that is, company secretaries, chartered accountants, forensic experts, lawyers, et al. Instead, what we have is an oddbod collection of generalist cops, some of whom come to head the agency near the fag end of their careers.

Compare this with the Federal Bureau of Investigation where they have developed such a great expertise and skill-sets in crime prevention, detection and prosecution that despite President Donald Trump dying to see the back of the Bob Mueller probe into the Russian interference in his election, he is thoroughly helpless. Here in India, the CBI changes colours with the change of government.

Meanwhile, let us not be hypocrites. If the four senior-most judges can make a public spectacle of their personal differences with the then incumbent Chief Justice of India, what is so shocking about senior cops indulging in a turf war, with one courting the Opposi- tion to advance his cause and the other cosying up to the government? That one of the four judges who had publicly paraded their differences with the then CJI himself occupies that august post ought to help the court take a balanced stance in the CBI versus CBI matter. The highest court should apply the balm of healing to the divide in the CBI. While still on the internal feud in the CBI, how come the Opposition leaders seem to be certain what Alok Verma was about to do when he was sent on leave, unless the latter was conspiring with them? Or if they are correct, then it may be equally true that the reason why Verma moved against Asthana was because he wanted to disrupt the on-going investigations in the Augusta Westland, Robert Vadra, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Sanjay Bhandari cases.

Have your pick. It is a game two sides can play. When you try and inject the virus of partisan politics into the functioning of institutions like the CBI, everyone is a loser. By rushing to cry out loud that Verma was furloughed because he was about to initiate investigation into the Rafale deal, Rahul Gandhi yet again shows his lack of maturity.

Hopefully, the Congress president’s minders have had the good sense to read and make a short précis of the interviews of the Chief Executive Officer of Dassault Aviation. Eric Trappier has said that neither he nor anyone in Dassault would risk going to prison by offering bribes to generate business for his company. Like in several other western countries, French companies too are prohibited from procuring business through payments of bribes or commissions. It is a cognizable offence liable to be punished with extended prison terms. Arun Shourie, the journalist, often berated his correspondents for being too credulous. He had his own rather colourful way of putting it: Politicians vomit, and you swallow it all, only to disgorge it on the newspaper. Well, Shourie is a politician now and wishes that the media would swallow whatever abuse he hurls against the government. Of course, the noise that CBI chief Alok Verma was about to start investigations into the Rafale deal is total nonsense. Because the CBI director or anyone else in the CBI is not competent to launch investigation without prior government sanction. Tom- tomming whatever half-witted politicians say is a weakness of the media, which rarely, if at all, factchecks.