CBI

2G scam continues to haunt the Government – SC asks why PM did not follow through

The 2G scam continues to haunt the Congress party. For quite some time, the Congress evaded that there was any issue with the 2G scam issue, claimed that this was a policy decision (with the honorable purpose of reducing the telecom rates), that the CAG was off its rocker, that the Supreme Court had no locus standi. Next, the Congress tried to separate itself from the scope of the scam by claiming that all this was the work of a rogue minister, A Raja; the PM was helpless since he had to depend on the minister, was bound by the challenges of coalitions politics, and besides the poor PM was a single man, how could he monitor everything that was happening (thankfully, the PM did not repeat this particular line, else the charge of being a useless and non-caring PM would have stuck to his plate).
For quite some time, the Congress believed that this will work, that eventually the case will lost its media attention, and the CBI will be persuaded to back off or make the case much weaker (which is what the CBI is already being accused of). However, when other people smell blood, then it is difficult to stop them. So, the media is forever on the case, and Subramaniam Swamy is dedicated to targeting some of the senior members of the Congress in the 2G scam rather than be satisfied with the scalp of A Raja.
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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh comes before the press – I am not at fault, and everybody is out to get me!

The present Congress Government is almost in a majority, and has come in with a larger number of MP’s in the last election in 2009. As a result, the Government considers that all questions regarding their image and corruption problems have been answered by the people, and as a result, nobody has the legitimacy to question the Government. After all, the Congress now has the vote of the people; an analysis would show that actually, out of the total population, the Congress would have got only 25% of the vote (and of course, the BJP got much lesser).
In the last 1 year and so, the Government has been battered by corruption scandals, high inflation, and an image deficit. The scams related to the CWG, 2G, Adarsh Housing, and so on have fried the belief of the middle class in the integrity of the Government, and the media has gone along for the ride (after all, who would not like to have some controversy, especially involving the Government of the day). The courts have also been harsh on the Government, and even arms of the Government such as the CAG have also battered the policies of the Government, cost overruns, and so on. The Government has also been battered by worries about policy gridlock, a stoppage in any sort of reform measures, and the stoppage of new investment measures by the industry, which has lead to a slowdown in the economy.
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The Government decides to take the CBI away from inspection under the RTI Act – hiding more details ?

The UPA Government is currently under a lot of pressure because of the various corruption investigations ongoing; the courts are looking into various issues and even guiding the CBI on how to do its investigations. In specific cases such as the Telecom 2G scam, the Supreme Court will scold the CBI when it feels that some action is not being taken, or there is some sort of interference in the actions of the CBI. This heat must be getting to the Government, since it has used the CBI in the past as a political weapon; guiding it in specific cases such as the Bofors case where the CBI proved spectacularly useless in finding out anything, as well as in the various disproportionate assets case against political leaders. Whenever there is a discussion in Parliament where the Government needs support, it dangles the cases being probed by the CBI and gets support from these political parties.
The RTI Act is a very powerful law that is still being evaluated in terms of the impact it can have on exposing wrong deeds; already, the exposure from RTI queries is helping a number of people. When you apply the RTI Act on CBI queries, the agency will be forced to reveal more details about why it took a certain position in many cases, causing potential embarrassment to the Government and to the agency. Is it any wonder that the Government accepted a plea by the CBI that its investigations can empower national security and moved the CBI under the organisations listed in the second schedule of Section 24 of the RTI Act, the same act which covers the intelligence agencies under the Government of India. In effect, the Government has now decreed that if the CBI has been investigating the assets of a leader, that information is now a matter of national security and its release will imperil the security of the nation. Further, if the CBI has been investigating the assets of IAS officers who are being accused of corruption, this again is a matter of national security. Absurd logic, is it not ? But what do you expect from a Prime Minister who has been ruling over a Government that has been universally accepted as being the most corrupt in the history of India; his own reputation of personal honesty has been blown apart after minister after minister has been running into problems. Consider the refusal of RTI applications in these cases (link to article):
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