Nothing surprises us anymore

It was about three decades back that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) replaced the state CIDs in public imagination as the premier investigating agency whose impartiality and efficiency was above reproach. The man on the street was assured that oversight by strong and independent accountability institutions, among them the Election Commission, the Vigilance Commission, the CBI and CAG will invariably detect and arrest poor administration and restrain the abuse of power and arbitrary behaviour. The bizarre and dizzying turn of events in the CBI over the past month would have led to considerable erosion of that public trust. On Tuesday, even the Supreme Court appeared to throw in the towel, observing that ‘none of you deserve a hearing’.

The CBI’s standing and credibility is being taken to the cleaners by its very custodians. It is a matter of record that one gazetted officer of an all India service was put behind bars, two are accusing each other of graft while others claim interference by the Prime Minister’s Office, the Union Law Secretary and officials of an intelligence agency. All charges are currently unverified. But the fact remains that there has been repeated obliteration of the dividing line between oversight institutions and the political executive, even though the Supreme Court had in the past delineated it with the Hawala and Coalgate cases.

Autonomous institutions like the CBI, or the RBI, are meant to assure citizens that the government’s integrity, efficiency and effectiveness are being monitored in their interest. The shenanigans in CBI could impair its ability to independently and objectively exercise the powers vested in it. Today, accountability and good governance matter to people as never before and they would not have failed to notice that the first fallout of the current infighting in the CBI occurred almost six months back. Yet, there was a reluctance and failure to attend to matters at the incipient stage itself. It is now the responsibility of the judiciary and the political executive to remove the choke points that have impacted public confidence in the CBI. Its waning credibility will not be in the nation’s interest.