The feud between Alok Verma and Rakesh Asthana in the CBI has sent its prestige, credibility and image down the drain.
The newspapers are replete with accounts of the internal feud between CBI’s number one officer Alok Verma and number two officer Rakesh Asthana. The matter has come to such a pass that the top boss has got a case registered against his deputy. This is not only unprecedented but also a serious assault on the credibility of an institution that was until recently referred to as the ‘premier investigation agency’ of India.
It was routine, until recently, that state governments, courts of law and even ordinary people wanted cases to be transferred to the CBI and investigated by it. They would turn to the CBI when they had no faith left in any other investigative agency. All that seems to have changed overnight, and in an irreparable manner. The prestige, credibility and image of the agency have been sent down the drain in what seems to be a clash of egos.
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Disputes, differences of opinion, ego wars are common in any organisation, but there are always ways and means to deal with them in a decent and graceful manner. They are best resolved internally. When things go out of hand in the case of government organisations, there is an intervention of the concerned ministry or even senior offices. What is most mystifying in the ongoing ‘La CBI Affaire’ is the utter indifference of the Narendra Modi government in allowing the situation to drift endlessly and come to this pass.
No one seems to understand what is at stake. The authority of any law enforcement agency rests not so much on its legal powers but on the mystique that surrounds it in the minds of offenders of law. In the case of the CBI, that would be the underworld, terrorists, conventional criminals, economic offenders and most of all, the corrupt in public offices. It was not very long ago that I have seen such elements shiver at the very mention of the CBI.
Dawood Ibrahim once confessed in an interview with India Today after the CBI arrested Yakub Memon, the investigative agency made him a mouse that had to keep hiding in a hole. “They have reduced me to a mouse. I am trapped and cannot move around freely,” he said. He added that wherever he went he imagined the next person to be a CBI agent.
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With the intractable damage to that mystique by the current controversy, the CBI now is no longer that premier investigation agency but a self-destructive and calamitous monster.
I wonder who will now ask for a CBI inquiry or investigation. With what face will a CBI prosecutor or investigating officer face a court of law? What clout will it wield in the minds of offenders of different hues? Which IPS officer would wish to join the CBI on deputation? What will be the fate of CBI cases in courts? All these questions and many more will have to be addressed and answered sooner than later. We, the citizens, should remember that the CBI — with its warts and all — has rendered yeoman service to the country in the past and performs a most important role. This cannot be denied.
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The warring chieftains need to be called by the powers-that-be, and their differences settled quickly in the interest of the country.
Neeraj Kumar is former police commissioner of Delhi. He set up the Special Task Force in the Central Bureau of Investigation in 1993 that probed the Mumbai blasts. He is currently chief advisor to the BCCI on corruption and security-related matters. He is the author of the book “Dial D for Don”.