HAPPENINGS IN THE HIGHEST INVESTIGATIVE AGENCY

What has been happening in the last two weeks in the highest investigative agency in the country is mind boggling and at the same time tinged with a sadness.  It is against the congress (the party with second largest number of members in the parliament), who was one of the members of the selection committee, the government and the then the CJI went ahead to appoint Alok Verma IPS to the post of the director of CBI, the leading investigative agency set up under the Delhi Police Act.  The moment it had become clear that he has his own agenda and owes his allegiance to his past masters in the opposition, to check-mate him the government brought in the Gujarat cadre IPS officer Rakesh Asthana as additional director.

The problems started immediately with the number one in the agency alleging the number 2 of corruption and in turn the number 2 alleging the number 1 of corruption and mishandling most of the investigation relating to 2G.  There was mention that the active involvement of the then finance minister in the 2G scam has been selectively omitted to be properly investigated at the behest of the number 1.  If that is so, then the rumour that the director of CBI was owing allegiance to some of the senior members of the congress rankles a lot. 

Rakesh Asthana had had an exemplary career all along with absolutely no black mark against him.  U N Biswas, the then lead investigator of CBI in the fodder scam in Bihar has very high regard for the integrity of this officer and the then director of CBI A S Raghavan has only praise for Asthana for the professional way in which the Godhra incident and the later developments were investigated and brought to light.  

Rakesh Asthana had a tenure in CBI earlier working under A S Raghavan's tenure as director investigating the fodder scam and also the Godhra incident.  In both the cases, he had been extremely professional despite lots of pressure to drop the investigations and close the files.  He had acted totally impartial and that is the reason why he was chosen to be number 2 in the agency.  Why, in the first place, Verma was chosen despite not having any investigative experience or in the stiff opposition of the main opposition party? Was the opposition by congress a smoke screen to hoodwink the government into acting and appointing the person as director?   In hindsight, it appears so.  

The allegations of the director investigating the Rafale aircraft deal by the government is as far fetched as saying that Modi's name was being considered for Noble peace prize 2018.   The allegations of the additional director against the director were being investigated by the CVC but the reports are that he had not co-operated with the CVC in finishing the investigation. What was he having to hide not to co-operate with CVC? It is not clear as yet.  Only the SC monitored CVC investigation can throw up some light on that.  

Though the government seems to have acted in haste, one cannot fault the government.  When the two top most officers of the central investigating agency are fighting each other, alleging corruption and bribery, it was time for the government to douse the fire and restore the confidence of the officers and men working in the investigative agency.  Otherwise the entire establishment would have been literally ripped apart in two camps owing allegiance to the two senior most officers. That would have sounded death knell of the agency.  No investigation agency can survive such allegations against the chief and vice chief of the agency.  There had been many instances  globally, when the administration has decided to change the chief half way down the stream.  Here in this instant case also, the government using the CVC, sent both the officers out of the CBI.  It is not clear whether one was sent out and the other was sent on long leave or both were sent on long leave pending suitable investigation on the claims of both. However, the government of the day had avoided blushes on a later day by acting decisively.

The SC also has come to the rescue of the government despite the tall claims of people like the president of the congress and the activist lawyer etc. They had asked the CVC to complete the investigation under the supervision of the retired judge of the SC and submit the report in a fortnight.  The interim chief appointed had been asked to do only regular administrative work with no powers for policy decision.  The actions of the government had not been criticised nor revoked by the SC. That is a great face saver for the government.  But the result of the investigation by CVC and the later day actions of the SC is to be seen to determine whether the present stand of SC is a laudable one or not.  However, the actions of the media in the entire episode is totally partisan and one sided.  Without understanding the compulsions of the government in taking such decisive action, the media was speculating a lot on the reasons for the same with a few going to the extremes to suggest it was done to avoid the director completing the investigation into the Rafale aircraft deal.  Most anchors seem to have hare brain to understand that CBI requires authorisation from the central government to take up any investigation and cannot suo-motu do any investigation.

One thing that has been confirmed is that in the last sixty odd years that the congress had been the ruling party in the central government, it has seen that it has loyalists in every place from ordinary administrative offices to the courts to the investigative agencies and the police force.  The traditions of the armed forces and their apolitical stand despite whichever party is in power had made it stand out and it is fortunate that the congress had not been able to do anything about having  its own partisan people in it at policy making levels.

Be that as it may, it is high time that the government decides to have only uniformed men in various positions in the defence ministry to avoid fiascoes like a recent one wherein a junior female officer tweeted in absolute indecent ways as a reply to Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd) tweet regarding a civilian using the flag and crest of Western command in his car, which is not regular, though not unlawful.  The officer had been replaced with a uniformed officer immediately.  But the damage had already been done. Insulting the uniformed men and especially a highly decorated soldier like Admiral Arun Prakash, is the lowliest of the low. When the US Army was sent to Afghanistan to fight the Al-Queda post 9/11,  assurance was given by the then Secretary of Defense. Such a political assurance is needed for tackling the problem in the troubled state of Kashmir to avoid the human rights activists taking up the cases in the SC and the SC passing strictures against the army and its personnel.