Heads are rolling in the CBI and understandably so. The tough action, though, has come a bit late. The events of the last few days have exposed the fault-lines in the nation’s premier investigating agency. At the height of an internal feud and corruption charges flying thick and fast the agency ordered a raid on its central office and suspended a senior sleuth. The “caged parrot” is left with egg on its face. The sacking of the CBI chief and ordering his deputy to go on leave, besides transfer of several officers out of the capital, were the minimum that could have been done to stem the rot.
Embarrassed is also Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, though the allegations crossed political boundaries and cast a shadow over the Congress leadership in the past, as well.
At the core of the problems in the CBI now was a personality clash between the head of the agency Alok Verma and his deputy Rakesh Asthana. This led to a free for all. The two are obviously poles apart, and Verma is believed to have a soft corner for the Congress while Asthana of the Gujarat cadre is reportedly a favourite of Modi and Shah. Verma, formerly a senior cop with Delhi police, is set to retire shortly and Asthana was expected to succeed him.
Both Asthana and Verma are accused of bribe-taking; the sums running into crores. There are other key personalities involved, including top meat exporter Moin Qureshi who “bribed” CBI top brass and “escaped” income tax raids by drawing support from Congress leadership in the past. There also are RAW officials who got involved in bribe-related aspects, and a host of middlemen. Worse, Asthana alleged his boss was trying to scuttle key investigations in the railway bribery case involving Bihar leader Lalu Prasad. He also says he had been taken out of investigations into this case as also the INX Media probe involving former Union finance minister P Chidambaram and family.
Curiously, Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power with the promise, among other things, to end the corruption Raj – a phenomena of the UPA II period. With the general elections fast approaching, he will be called upon to explain what he did to fulfill his promises. Corruption pervades all segments of the society and all governmental departments. The Modi dispensation made little difference to this scenario, except perhaps at the top level. Total eradication is difficult, but it could also be argued that Modi has not done enough to check this trend even as he personally is not seen to be corrupt. But, so was former PM Manmohan Singh. This in itself was not good enough.