The Hindu Business Line : `Roll call of shame'

THAT is the heading under which India Today in its October 20 issue has listed the major scams taken up by the CBI for investigation which are either in the doldrums or have been closed, leading to the suspicion of extraneous pulls and pressures being at work on the agency. These scams rocked the country at one time and include Bofors, HDW Submarine and airbus deals, the housing, urea, fodder and petrol pump scams. The write-up on the CBI in the magazine is titled "Its master's voice" suggesting that the agency is being used more and more as the handmaiden of the ruling party and generally as a political tool. Of course, the Director, Mr P. C. Sharma, has vehemently denied this, claiming that the CBI has always stuck to the tenets of independence, integrity and professionalism.

Mere assertion is not enough. Just as justice should not only be done but should seem to be done, there must be convincing and credible demonstration of its professional independence and integrity in the way the agency carries out its responsibilities. Regrettably, that is what has been lacking in recent years as many formerly associated with it will themselves readily admit. The rot, as with many other things in the polity, began with the ducks and drakes. Sanjay Gandhi played with institutions during Indira Gandhi's first term of office which culminated in the Emergency. That apart, there are some serious defects in the system itself that compromises the CBI's effectiveness and militates against its inspiring the needed trust and confidence.

It being an adjunct of the Prime Minister's office — thereby being made subservient to the political executive — is the first drawback. However much the Prime Minister, Mr A. B. Vajpayee, might protest that there is no political interference of any sort, there can be no gainsaying the possibility of a subliminal influence operating on those running the agency prompting them to pander to the preferences of political masters, especially when they can make or mar their career prospects. That was why the National Police Commission of which a former CBI Director, Mr C. V. Narasimhan, was himself the member-secretary, insisted, as early as in 1979, on an independent National Security Commission being set up to keep tabs on all matters pertaining to investigation and prosecution by the agency on the one hand and on the other, the appointments and deployment of its personnel. Successive Governments have given a clean go-by for this recommendation and for obvious reasons.

No doubt the recent Act vesting the Central Vigilance Commission with the statutory authority to exercise supervision over the CBI and have a say in the selection of the Director, is an improvement on the situation, but everything, as in all worldly affairs, will depend on the calibre of persons appointed to these posts.

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