The 50-word Edit — ThePrint view on the most important issues, instantly.
Supreme Court order on CBI is an attempt at a balancing act. It wants CVC to conduct a fair probe on CBI’s top two. We presume SC believes CVC has more integrity than Director-CBI, though the court now has a decisive role in appointing both. We suspect it’s being optimistic.
Defence Ministry spokesperson must be sacked
That the official Twitter handle of the Defence spokesperson could air such petty criticism of the armed forces’ officers, and that too in response to a widely-respected former chief and war hero, shows criminal loss of control in the Ministry of Defence. Heads must roll.
Arun Jaitley had made a master move by saying that Modi government took the midnight action on CVC’s report/complaint against Director CBI. Apparently the CVC does have such powers. So now the Supreme Court is trying to call CVC’s bluff by moving Justice Pattanaik into the picture. Now CVC will have to prove that the “proofs” it gave to the government are good enough to pass through the “filter” of Justice Pattanaik.
This is truly a very JUST decision by SC. Who knows, CVC might INDEED HAVE good proofs for complaint against Alok Verma (AV). After all, isn’t everyone ASSUMING that AV was removed ONLY BECAUSE he could have moved against the Rafale deal? SC is perusing Rafale separately on its own anyway. AV should, and I think he will, come clean on his PAST record without promise of what FUTURE good he proposed to do.
Rakesh Asthana most likely is in the soup. If his daughter’s wedding defines his mindset, then AV’s claims of his corruption may not be farfetched.