Video Editor: Sandeep Suman
The recent furore within the CBI has brought the country to a very critical juncture where we are staring at a question on the functioning of legal bodies and institutions in our country. The second biggest challenge is whether that political capital – accumulated enormously within the current government’s reach – will get demonetised.
The question has cropped up also because, while initially, the tussle was being considered an insider’s dispute between CBI’s number 1 and number 2 – recent incidents indicate that the dispute wasn’t limited to just that.
In this fight of CBI vs CBI, CBI Director Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana have alleged charges of corruption against each other.
Another question which has emerged during the ongoing fiasco – one that we tend to focus less on is – what role does the CVC play in our country?
Firstly, it provides a character certificate, approving the promotion of a person to a certain designation or post. Following this, if allegations surface against that very person, it spends months and decades at leisure. Pertaining to this, the CVC was in the know of complaints against Alok Verma and Rakesh Asthana since August, but no action was taken.
Who Appoints the CVC?
CVC’s appointment is carried out by the government, ergo, it is a kind of government body and not an autonomous body.
The government is very powerful in India. It has a lot of rights granted to it by the Constitution, but why did a question arise here? What transpired over a night that Rakesh Asthana and Alok Verma were sent on leave?
A new person was reinstated in Verma’s position. At the stroke of the midnight hour, the government decided who will be the new CBI chief. Clearance from the CVC came on the heels of this development. M Nageshwar Rao was made the interim director. A takeover was carried out in the wee hours of the night, at 2 am.
The CBI office was sealed.
The incidents we have seen in Delhi in the past few days make for a complex story of great magnitude – one that cannot be found in a thriller or a popular novel.
We are bringing forth this question to you, so that you can think about it.
First, in a case pertaining to an autonomous organisation like the CBI, was it right to remove the CBI chief without consulting the concerned committees?
The Supreme Court has said the CVC must take a decision in 15 days as to whether the charges against Alok Verma are true.
On the other hand, the apex court has asked the interim director not to take any policy decisions.
Though the government claims that the Supreme Court verdict has not been a setback, the question remains – how does a government, that had full control over its political narrative, suddenly have so many co-authors? Now they have several agencies involved – RAW, IB, CBI, ED and the CVC.
Were they acting in tandem? Was it a case of rogue officers indulging in corrupt practices, or is this case running true to the tradition of political witch-hunting where big and small fish are targeted alike? We were made to believe that the government is waging a war against corruption and black money. But now, skeletons are tumbling out of their closet.
Only a few days ago, Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhushan met the CBI director and submitted a petition that said that the Rafale scam must be probed – while also demanding a CBI probe into the government's role. Now, the Opposition is raising the same questions. Congress leaders launched protests asking the same questions.
Even Subramanian Swamy, who is anti-Congress and anti-Chidambaram, who is not a friend of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who has always spoken in favour of the RSS and PM Modi, has now alleged that the CBI controversy could expose the farce behind the government's fight against corruption. The biggest allegations are being put forward by Subramanian Swamy.
So, ahead of the polls, the ongoing political narrative has witnessed new characters who have introduced a twist in the tale.
Government’s Reliability, Stability and Political Capital in Danger
The CBI controversy has emerged as an important event, but you can't look at it as just another event.
This is an indication of the current political scenario in the country. Should the tools of statecraft – such as police stations, police charges, conspiracies, surveillance, probes and the conspiracies within these agencies – be justified? Is that how political objectives are achieved?
In some cases they work, in some they don't. We don't know what the public mandate on this will be. For now, the good thing is that the Supreme Court has stepped in. The government's hands are tied. The court does not have full faith in the CVC, so it has asked the CVC to submit its report in 15 days.
This is not a happy situation for the government. How will the government recover from this shock? We will find out in the weeks to come.
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