By Sushil Kutty
The Supreme Court Friday ordered the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) to complete his probe against CBI Director Alok Verma in two weeks’ time under the strict eye of Supreme Court-appointed judge AK Patnaik. The top court issued notices to the Centre and the CVC; and barred interim CBI Director Nageshwar Rao from taking policy decisions. Besides, decisions or orders taken by Rao in the last three days must be handed over to the SC in a sealed cover.
What does it all mean? One reading is that the bench of CJI Ranjan Gogoi, Justice KM Joseph and Justice SK Kaul hasn’t given any relief to Alok Verma, the complainant. Verma went to court after being sent on ‘leave’ after a past-midnight drama three days ago. The other reading is that the court has probably called the Centre’s bluff, and that the whole inquiry thing against Verma was a red-herring!
Question: Is the government in a blue funk? There’s such an impression gaining ground. Mostly, because both the CVC and the Centre sought more time to complete the probe, sounding desperate. The bench said nothing doing. Is this the Centre’s and CVC’s Kavanaugh/FBI moment? The FBI beat the deadline, can the CVC do so? It will have to, with Judge Patnaik sitting on its head!
The third reading is that Verma’s goose is cooked, the Centre and CVC were not bluffing and that Verma was the reason for the breakdown in CBI; his lack of “CBI experience”, ergo his ineptness in handling pressure, imputing that he should have sounded the alarm before things got out of hand, instead of letting things deteriorate to the point of destruction.
Whatever, Friday, Verma’s bete noire and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s alleged “blue-eyed boy” Special Director Rakesh Asthana, who was also grounded, moved the apex court. But he was told to come later with a writ of his. How should that be taken? There’s need for a sprawling investigation into madhouse CBI. But there are always two sides to a question. The problem is, we’re largely in the habit of mind to look at one side only. With the CBI, both sides were hollering that the other side was the “evil”; that guys on the other side of the aisle were all nut-jobs. Period.
The top court has with Friday’s directive hopefully taken the first step to sort out one side of the confusion in the CBI ranks. The other side must also be scrutinized, and most definitely will be. Willy-nilly, probing Verma will also expose some of Asthana’s handiwork. And by extension the Centre’s role. By stopping the interim director from taking policy decisions, the SC has prevented the creation of ‘CBI No.3’. The directive to submit “orders in sealed envelope” translates to pregnant possibilities.
The time-frame given is important. The Supreme Court doesn’t like it one bit that India’s premier investigating agency CBI was losing its cutting edge, the erosion of its credibility reaching nadir; time the top court did something more than just parroting “caged parrot” in court to describe the CBI’s plight. And it was not the CBI alone, other top-notch investigating agencies – Enforcement Directorate and R&AW – were also losing standing.
Look at the sorry soup the Intelligence Bureau has landed itself in. We now know our vaunted ‘spies’ led by NSA Ajit Doval are not fit guys. The chap in blue shirt collared outside Verma’s residence, couldn’t even put up a decent fight and the one in the pink shirt was shepherded away by the scruff of his neck. Only dumb spies will park their car in plain sight. But that must be standard spy-book: Do what you’re not expected to – “He was there right in front of my eyes and I didn’t even see him!”
So, what’s the CBI truth? Who has a casual-relationship with truth; which one of the two, Verma and Asthana, lives in the foothills of the preposterous? Arun Shourie says one way to find answers is to start from the latest embarrassment and work down the multitude before. Modi and Shah have made it a habit to get into controversies like little pups get under the bus. With attack dogs like Shourie, Shotgun Sinha and Yashwant Sinha ever present to pounce, one would have thought the two would be alert to the fact that they’re hare for the hunt.
Yet, the duo keep manufacturing situations and setting themselves up for the kill. Now, why bring Rakesh Asthana, yesterday’s tofu, to the party? Maybe the tofu had a special taste, now gone sour. And only a fool will allegedly part with Rs 30,000 crore of public money to a bankrupt capitalist crony. That jet will crash if ever it takes off, and now the Rafale looks like it never will. Talk is Verma has something to say on Rafale and that’s what set off the CBI lunacy though the CBI has now declared that there’s no CBI investigation into Rafale.
Will the “sealed orders” contain something on Rafale? Shourie’s low opinion of Modi is not shared by people abroad. Some of them bestowed on Modi the Seoul Peace Prize for his “sterling performance” on the economy front. Unbelievable? How about a Rs 30,000 crore handout to somebody who had his ‘Idea’ shot down by ‘Sirjee’ but allegedly picked up by ‘Modiji’. News is that some chap in South Carolina won a lottery of 1.8 billion dollars and they can’t find him! What about the musical donkey of Ireland hitting a high note? Unbelievable! Let’s just hope, the law does not make an ass of itself probing the CBI. (IPA Service)
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