July 26, 2003

INSULATING THE INTELLIGENCE AND INVESTIGATION
POLITICAL INTERFERENCE UNDERMINING THEIR PRESTIGE

New Delhi : Misuse of intelligence and investigation wings of the State is not a new thing. But, except the occasional outcry against the Executive, who is seriously interested in reforming them? Nobody in the legislature, it seems. Otherwise, how could it be possible that the recommendations of the various commissions and committees have been accumulating dust over them and the politician of the ruling parties have been misusing them for years?

It was evident recently in the Parliament when fingers were raised against the Central investigation agency, the CBI, and the Prime Minister under who the CBI works. The entire opposition demanded an explanation from the Government of India over the alleged watering down the criminal case against the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Mr L K Advani and other luminaries of the BJP in the matter of demolition of the Babri Mosque on December 6, 1992.

Whether the CBI was misused by the Government to drop the charge of conspiracy against the BJP stalwarts who have been allegedly conspired to bring about the demolition of the Babri Mosque? It's a strange thing that the Law Minister, Mr Arun Jaitly did not give a direct reply. Instead, he replied that the trial court was not bound by the charges brought by the CBI and it had under the law , the power to add to them or modify them based for evidence placed before it. Thus, he implied that what the CBI did or did not do was immaterial since it was for the court to decide whether there was conspiracy or not. It smacks of some foul play.

It is a known fact that the intelligence wings of the States and the Centre have been misused by the ruling parties for their own interests for years. The investigating agencies like the state police and the CBI are already suffering the infamy of being wrecking criminal cases by some design or default. It is alleged that they do so because of corruption or the unofficial direction from their political bosses, or their inability or incompetence.

How much interference is there can be gauged by even in the recent prayer of the CBI to the Allahabad High Court itself. It may be mentioned that the Babri Mosque demolition case of Ayodhya also falls in the territory of Uttar Pradesh, in which, however, the CBI did not mention any interference. However, CBI has requested the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court not to recommend fresh cases to it.

“The CBI is overburdened with investigation cases. It has limited manpower and resources to handle the cases already recommended,” explained a senior official of the CBI. The agency has made this request to a Division Bench of the Court during hearing of a PIL case filed against “ 76 officials including two dozen IAS , IPS and PCS officials who allegedly has swindled Rs 35,000 crore of public money.” Fed up with the alleged “non-cooperation” and too many corruption cases, the CBI said “ even if investigations are taken up and allegations are found true, the onus of giving sanction for prosecution of officers lies with the state government which either comes late or remains elusive and therefore, the investigation will serve no purpose.”

This shows the general state of affairs in the CBI. Therefore, there is a strong case to make the CBI independent of any interference. The vigilance and investigation departments of all the states and the Centre are also suffering this evil.

Only few years back, we have introduced a Vigilance Commission in our country and placed the CBI under it with a hope to make the Agency more efficient and interference free. However, it belied our hopes.

Now, it is clear that unless the investigation and prosecution agencies are insulated from the executive officials in the government or the ruling politicians, they cannot be over suspicions.

Widespread misuse of the IB and the CBI had been reported during the Emergency. Shah Commission had probed them and submitted its report to the Centre with some valuable recommendations. The National Police Commission has also recommended some remedy. However , the reports as well as their recommendations have long been ignored.

In one of the recommendations , it was suggested that high-powered , independent National and state-level Security Commissions should be set up. They should be comprised of eminent persons of unimpeachable credentials, one of the recommendations read. The question is how to find such persons ?

Nevertheless, it is a high time to make some serious efforts to insulate the intelligence and investigating agencies from extraneous influences. Picking up only individual cases and some occasion outcry over the alleged interference or tampering the criminal cases would not do. ( EOM)