‘A Weapon Of Political Vendetta’
The Central Bureau of Investigation agency has become a Controlled Bureau of Investigation agency under the current ruling party of India.
“With every passing day, this government (United Progressive Alliance) is hatching conspiracies and their biggest tool is CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation). It is the Congress Bureau of Investigation. Nation has lost faith in the CBI”. These words were delivered by the then Chief Minister of Gujarat and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in a public ceremony which was held in Gujarat in June 2013. As a commander in chief of an opposition party, he had to confront for the sake of the nation, besides he had to confront the authorities who misemployed one of the main autonomous institutions of India. Currently, Mr Modi serves as a Prime Minister or Prime Servant (as he likes to suggest himself) of India therefore as citizens of India we should scrutinise the state of the Central Bureau Of Investigation under his watch. The ruling party should’t be used it as ‘a weapon of political vendetta’ and they should be criticised or taken into account on every single damn illegal or unlawful thing that is happening in the agency as Mr Modi declared in the ‘unscripted’ show in London, “I want this Government to be criticised. Criticism makes democracy strong”.
The Central Bureau of Investigation also known as the CBI is the prime investigation agency of India originally set up to investigate bribery and governmental corruption. Since the inception of this agency every single government has used it as a tool against the opposition parties and oftentimes counter the voices whom they conceive as threats to accomplish their political motives. However, as illustrator Prakash S humorously pointed out in his illustration which is published in Decan Herald, “This is the Gujarat model, there is no CBI, so there’s no corruption in Modi raj”. Under the current ruling party, the investigation agency widely considered as a tool to fulfil their agendas and their dirty politics against whom they think is a threat to their existence. Oftentimes the agency’s investigations and indictments are purely motivated. Whoever speaks against the BJP or their actions and policies, is facing serious consequences by the investigating agency. One of the opposition party Shiv Sena rightly put it out, “The perception of the ruling party could be that the ED and the CBI know techniques of subduing the opposition. Hence, they should be used at the border with the army, not as tools against political opponents in the country”. Several opposition states had withdrawn general consent to CBI requiring the agency to seek non-specific permission.
The turbulence in the CBI embarked on in April 2016, when the ruling party determined to appointed Rakesh Asthana, the person who had investigated the burning of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra in 2002. They made him the special director in the agency amid the opposition of the former Commissioner of Delhi Police Alok Verma from the very beginning. The human rights activist and lawyer Prashant Bhushan also challenged the decision in the Supreme Court. Even though the Supreme Court of India more likely a Friendly Court of BJP dismissed the petition. A year later Modi’s ‘blue-eyed boy’ was entangled in a bribery controversy along with Alok Verma, the former special director of the CBI in a corruption scandal, both accused of each other of bribery. Exceedingly interesting! These two are not some naughty backbenchers kindergarten kids accused each other in front of the class teacher over who had thrown a spider toy to scare the topper girl in the class, these two were the officers of India’s most respected agency(in the eyes of common people). The question to be asked which was asking rightly by one of the Congress leader named Sachin Pilot, “How do we trust the CBI to look at corruption issues when their top people are themselves involved and allegations are flying thick and fast”. Congress leader and former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram arrested due to a corruption scandal in the Inx Media case. It was considered as a ‘witch-hunt’ as the other culprits from the ruling party is protected by the agency. The big culprits like B. S. Yediyurappa, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Mukul Roy hadn’t been touched by the agency even though they were accused of serious crimes like land and mining scams, water supply scam, Sarada Chit Fund scam respectively.
As per the agency and its roles, the website of the agency suggests, “It is an elite force playing a major role in the preservation of values in public life and in ensuring the health of the national economy. It is also the nodal police agency in India, which coordinates investigation on behalf of Interpol Member countries.” Be that as it may, the overall image of the investigation agency is so tarnished and its credibility is at such a low that few would want to believe its seriousness and proclamation of neutrality. The irony is that several political regimes that came to power over the years on an anti-corruption agenda conveniently making real and astonishing efforts to clean up the system. Under the current ruling party, some decisions are made by the agency after midnights due to their busy schedule during days with top bosses of the government and discussing the next move against the opposition leaders. Overnight they transferred 13 officers with in the agency. “It was wrong to have removed the CBI from the realm of RTI (Right to information), and it needs to bring back,” Sridhar Acharyulu, a retired central information commissioner said to the Print after the incident. They shouldn’t be tagged as ‘autonomous agency’ anymore, rather they should be tagged as ‘Controlled Bureau of investigation agency’. No one is above the law not even the Prime Bosses of the country. The investigation agency should keep that in mind. They should investigate anyone whom the allegations have been made. They should be earned their reputation by the actions they have been taken against the culprits who committed serious crimes, it’s not enough to claim their credibility on its very own website. A few days earlier I had daydreaming that opposition party leaders had come together to fight against the CBI and the ruling party who misused the agency to accomplish its agendas, few moments later my daydream turned into an absolute nightmare when I realised that there are no such opposition leaders in this country who dare to fight against the agency and the government. Also, the opposition leaders were sold to the ruling party like the slaves were sold in ancient Rome. These were all important opposition leaders, therefore the government used the tactic which was used in ancient Rome that was the private sale in the case of more valuable slaves.
