CBI

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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Anna Hazare launches a crusade against corruption, for a strong Lokpal; Government not willing

If you were to ask an Indian citizen about whether the Government, comprising of their elected representatives (politicians) and bureaucrats, were corrupt, you would most likely get an earful about the amount of corruption that is all pervasive in the country; at all levels and positions. Scare is the person who would not have to pay money to get something done, else, their work does not happen. But, when you go to some sort of intellectual discussion on this subject, you get to hear such absurd ideas such as that corruption is due to this society, that corruption is because all of us pay money to get something done, else it would come to an end. What an absurd concept – if our work would be getting done on time and as per process, why would anybody pay money to make it happen. The reality of corruption is that when people see that there are no real steps taken against corruption, and even when it is openly known that corruption prevails even at the highest political levels, then it sort of gets sanction. What is required is that some tough steps be taken that show people that corruption will not be tolerated, and obvious signs of corruptions such as the following – the CWG scam, the 2G telecom, the Adarsh housing scam, the Bofors scam, the scam around Karnataka CM giving land to his sons, politicians growing their wealth exponentially, etc – are investigated on a priority.
Instead, what do we have ? We have the highest authority in the country claiming that because they got voted in again, any corruption involved in the buying of parliamentary support was no longer relevant; a case of corruption implicating a former Prime Minister being finally closed in disgrace 25 odd years after it came to prominence, the CBI reversing its stand on the wealth cases of Mulayam Singh and Mayawati depending on how the Congress needs their support.
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Supreme Court takes up the question of the CVC P J Thomas

The post of the CVC (Chief Vigilance Commissioner) is a very critical post in terms of the fight against corruption. This is a post that forms critical oversight of the various actions of the executive, and is yet seen as independent of the control of the Government (unlike the other major investigating agency, the CBI, which acts under the control of the Government through the Ministry of Personnel). In the past, the various actions taken by the CBI have shown it to be a compromised agency, given its incredibly slow rate of progress in the investigations into the 2G telecom scam, its investigation into the issue about the 1984 riots case, all the actions taken in the Bofors case, and so on. By any yardstick, the level of confidence in the independence of the CBI is much lower, specifically in the case where the investigation is being conducted on an arm of the Government.
Some time back, the court ordered a cleanup of the post of the CVC, making it an independent body which is outside the control of the Government, and tried to make sure that the post of the CVC is somewhat independent. This was done through setting some guidelines for the selection of the person to become the CVC, including giving a role to the Leader of the Opposition in terms of the selection. Another criteria was the desired objective of the person being totally free of any taint (which was something that is in dispute, since the current CVC has a chargesheet filed against him for a case of import of food oil in Kerala in the 90′s).
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