Caged parrot and catfight
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: May 14, 2013 -

The recent observation of the Supreme Court of India on the functioning of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as a 'caged parrot speaking in its master's voice' may have raked up a debate on the credibility of the premier investigating police agency of the country once more.

But how the agency, which was established for the first time in 1941 under the name of Special Police Establishment before it takes the present name of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under the motto 'Industry, Impartiality and Integrity' on April 1, 1963, has eroded its reputation over the years is an open secret.

In fact, Joginger Singh, who was the Director of CBI from 1996 to 1997, and BR Lall, former DGP of Haryana, who handled many high-profile cases including the famous Jain Hawala case during his stint as Joint Director of CBI from 1994 to 1996, have earlier exposed how the investigating agency was engaging in nepotism, mal-prosecution and outright corruption.

In his book, "Who Owns CBI: The Naked Truth", which was published in 2006, BR Lall provided details on the modus operandi of CBI in manipulating and derailing investigation.

In short, with CBI handling many high-profile cases including Bofors scandal, Bhopal gas tragedy, 2G Spectrum Scam and the currently raging Indian coal allocation scam or 'Coalgate', the Central probe agency has never been far away from controversy.

The latest 'caged parrot' remarks of the Supreme Court on the functioning of CBI has come when the apex court learnt that the 'heart of the Coalgate probe report' was changed on the suggestions of Government officials".

In his second affidavit submitted to the apex court on May 6, the incumbent Director of CBI Ranjit Sinha had dropped a bombshell, revealing that Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and other senior officials of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) had made changes in the Coalgate report.

The nine-page long affidavit had also given details of the series of meeting held with Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, Attorney General G E Vahanvati, Additional Solicitor General Harin Raval and two Joint Secretaries namely Shatrughna Singh (from the Prime Minister's Office) and A K Bhalla (from the Coal ministry) during which the changes in the probe report were suggested and made by them.

This sordid episode has once again exposed the role and undue interference of the Government in the functioning of CBI, whose main job and responsibility is to interrogate Government officials to find the out the truth and not to have regular interaction with them over a cup of tea.

So, there could be nothing more truthful to the observations of the apex court that CBI must know how to stand up against all 'pulls and pressures' by the Government and its officials.

However, the sad part of the whole story is that the observations and directives of the Supreme Court for making CBI free from all external pressures in its operation has now been reduced to an issue for catfight between the Congress party and the BJP to cover up their respective misdeeds.