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The sharpest ever indictment of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) by the Supreme Court on Tuesday could not have come at a better time. For the layman the CBI stands for an impartial and autonomous investigative body, free from political influences. But that is perhaps a grand theory alone, as with other institutions that have declined over the years due to brazen political interference. So can the CBI, however vaunted, be any exception when the ruling party or coalition of any time at the Centre has always sought to decide who the investigative body should chase and who to ignore? This, the Supreme Court has finally sensed; hence its observation on the CBI’s desperation to rid itself of the Mulayam Singh Yadav disproportionate assets case. The bench of Justices Altmas Kabir and Cyriac Joseph has rapped the CBI thus: ‘‘So you were acting at the behest of the Law Ministry. The Central government was of the view that you should withdraw the case and you apply for withdrawal. What you are saying is unusual. It is rather incomprehensible.’’ It is actually a slap on the face of the ruling Congress and its proclaimed righteousness meant for hoodwinking the public. After all, the Congress has a new equation of expediency with the Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) that salvaged the Manmohan Singh government during the trust vote last year following the exit of the Left. Was the CBI’s favour for the SP chief the Congress’ thanksgiving? Going by the apex court’s observation, the inference is exactly that. The learned judges further said: ‘‘If the advice of the Centre and the Law Ministry is the ground for CBI to seek withdrawal of the application, then God help us.’’ Yet, the Congress’ conscience is ‘guilt-free’ and unfazed, used as it is to misusing institutions like the CBI to further its own nefarious agendas — an art that the country’s oldest political party, which shamelessly invokes the Mahatma as defence mechanism, has perfected.
A Congress spokesperson, who is himself a well-known lawyer, appeared on TV channels on Tuesday night to defend his party and said that the Supreme Court was merely observing, and not giving any verdict. If that is the Congress’ stated position after Tuesday’s ignominy, all it points to is its intransigence and unabashed grandstanding to prove a point that has already been proven otherwise. A civilized and dignified political party would be rather impatient about course corrections, respecting an observation coming from no less than the country’s highest court of law and acknowledging its past follies. But not the Congress that seems to be shouting aloud that it has an absolute lordship over the CBI and so has the right to misuse it for electoral gains however petty. There is no use blaming the BJP for what it did or tried to do with the CBI when it was in power at the Centre. Two wrongs, assuming the BJP’s political handling of the CBI, do not and cannot make a right. And the BJP’s was a small innings. But the Congress has ruled the country for the best part of the past six decades, and how it has inflicted institutional damage on our democracy is now there for all to see and believe, too, that the interest of democracy is not in its mind. Any doubt?
source: the sentinel assam
The sharpest ever indictment of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) by the Supreme Court on Tuesday could not have come at a better time. For the layman the CBI stands for an impartial and autonomous investigative body, free from political influences. But that is perhaps a grand theory alone, as with other institutions that have declined over the years due to brazen political interference. So can the CBI, however vaunted, be any exception when the ruling party or coalition of any time at the Centre has always sought to decide who the investigative body should chase and who to ignore? This, the Supreme Court has finally sensed; hence its observation on the CBI’s desperation to rid itself of the Mulayam Singh Yadav disproportionate assets case. The bench of Justices Altmas Kabir and Cyriac Joseph has rapped the CBI thus: ‘‘So you were acting at the behest of the Law Ministry. The Central government was of the view that you should withdraw the case and you apply for withdrawal. What you are saying is unusual. It is rather incomprehensible.’’ It is actually a slap on the face of the ruling Congress and its proclaimed righteousness meant for hoodwinking the public. After all, the Congress has a new equation of expediency with the Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) that salvaged the Manmohan Singh government during the trust vote last year following the exit of the Left. Was the CBI’s favour for the SP chief the Congress’ thanksgiving? Going by the apex court’s observation, the inference is exactly that. The learned judges further said: ‘‘If the advice of the Centre and the Law Ministry is the ground for CBI to seek withdrawal of the application, then God help us.’’ Yet, the Congress’ conscience is ‘guilt-free’ and unfazed, used as it is to misusing institutions like the CBI to further its own nefarious agendas — an art that the country’s oldest political party, which shamelessly invokes the Mahatma as defence mechanism, has perfected.
A Congress spokesperson, who is himself a well-known lawyer, appeared on TV channels on Tuesday night to defend his party and said that the Supreme Court was merely observing, and not giving any verdict. If that is the Congress’ stated position after Tuesday’s ignominy, all it points to is its intransigence and unabashed grandstanding to prove a point that has already been proven otherwise. A civilized and dignified political party would be rather impatient about course corrections, respecting an observation coming from no less than the country’s highest court of law and acknowledging its past follies. But not the Congress that seems to be shouting aloud that it has an absolute lordship over the CBI and so has the right to misuse it for electoral gains however petty. There is no use blaming the BJP for what it did or tried to do with the CBI when it was in power at the Centre. Two wrongs, assuming the BJP’s political handling of the CBI, do not and cannot make a right. And the BJP’s was a small innings. But the Congress has ruled the country for the best part of the past six decades, and how it has inflicted institutional damage on our democracy is now there for all to see and believe, too, that the interest of democracy is not in its mind. Any doubt?
source: the sentinel assam
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