Ominous signs

Even for an organisation that is no stranger to controversy, having been called a ‘caged parrot’ of the ruling dispensation in the past, the recent events at the Central Bureau of Investigation are truly alarming. A midnight executive order shunting out the head of the country’s premier investigating agency this week has followed a similar decree transferring the Number 2 in the CBI, Rakesh Asthana, along with other officers. Meanwhile, the Opposition member of the appointing committee of the CBI Director has said that a “state of disarray and arbitrariness” characterises the functioning of other key institutions such as the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) as well as the Prime Minister’s Office. As Opposition parties take to streets protesting “authoritarian” tendencies, the Supreme Court on Friday heard eminent lawyer Fali S Nariman arguing on behalf of the CBI Director Alok Verma who has challenged the Centre’s order asking him to proceed on leave. The apex court has appointed a retired Supreme Court judge to oversee a CVC enquiry against Verma and restricted the interim Director of the CBI from taking policy directions. The CBI had earlier registered an FIR for bribery and corruption against Asthana who, on his part, has since contended that it was his boss, Verma, who took bribes and compromised investigations in sensitive cases.

There is more than a hint of interference by the political executive in the functioning of crucial democratic institutions. The laxity shown by investigating agencies in probing cases related to leaders in the ruling dispensation seems to stand out vis-a-vis their alacrity in pursuing cases against prominent Opposition leaders. In fact, the present Chief Justice was part of the group of four judges who spoke out earlier this year against “executive interference in judiciary”. Though the Congress cannot escape the charge that its recent decade in power was replete with instances of meddling with investigating agencies, that cannot be a justification for the BJP to stretch institutional integrity to its limits. Popular cynicism with procedural integrity and disregard for institutional autonomy led us into that dark experiment with authoritarianism, the Emergency, 43 years ago.

The Centre can do no better than recall Justice HR Khanna’s glorious dissent in the ADM Jabalpur vs Shivkant Shukla case that the essential postulate of the rule of law is the “absence of arbitrariness”. “Power of the executive should not only be derived from law but should also be limited by law,” he said in his historic judgment during the Emergency. This seems all the more relevant today.

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