By K Raveendran
The reported move by the Narendra Modi government to create a new post of Chief Investigation Officer of India (CIO) on the lines of Chief of Defence Staff (CDO) and the National Security Advisor (NSA) is a blatant attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court as a collateral target and institutionalise the use of premier investigative agencies as the ruling party’s, or to be more precise, the PMO’s political tool as part of a nefarious design.
According to reports, the chiefs of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) will report to the new officer, just as the three services chiefs do to the CDS and the two intelligence agencies to the NSA.
The move has to be seen in the context of the Supreme Court coming down heavily against what it considered as ‘illegal’ the extension of Sanjay Mishra’s tenure as the chief of Enforcement Directorate despite a court direction disallowing such extension. The government had tried to take cover under an amendment to the law in 2021 that allowed the extension of the chiefs of CBI and ED for up to a maximum of five years, but the court that the law cannot be used to nullify its verdict.
The apex court, however, It, however, allowed Mishra to continue till September 15 in view of the Modi government’s plea that his continuance was required in the ‘larger public and national interest’ he was responsible for interacting with the US Financial Action Task Force, which has been reviewing India’s case in view of demand by some neighbouring countries that the country be put in the ‘grey list’ along with Pakistan. But it rejected the demand for a full-fledged third term for Mishra, who is considered to a most pliant officer by the Modi government.
It has been widely seen that the Centre has been using the central agencies selectively to target political opponents both at the national level and in the states to settle scores. So much so that the opposition parties had even approached the Supreme Court, seeking protection against arbitrary arrests of political leaders. While the court rejected the demand, on the ground that politicians cannot be given special consideration in the case of arrests, its stand in the case relating to Mishra’s extension reveals that it is well aware of what has been going in the country with regard to the misuse of central agencies.
It is no rocket science to understand that the Financial Action Task Force review is only an alibi to ensure the controversial ED director’s continued availability for the Centre’s dirty deeds. If the idea was to facilitate FATF review, the government could have appointed him as an officer on special duty, but what it envisages is an entirely different arrangement.
Under the new arrangement, the operational supervision of both Enforcement Directorate and CBI would be entrusted to the new officer, who would report directly to the Prime Minister’s Office, the activities of which have not been above board in several cases involving the central agencies. As per the existing arrangement, the two agencies work independently, with the ED functioning under the Department of Revenue of the Union Ministry of Finance and the CBI under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. While technically the two would be continue to be under the respective administrative machinery, the appointment of a common chief makes the agencies much more pliant to the wishes of the powers that be.
The ostensible reason cited for the change is the risk of overlapping in the areas of investigation of the ED and the CBI. While the ED focuses mainly on financial fraud, including cases related to money laundering and FEMA violations, there is no dearth of cases where the CBI also takes up corruption and other economic offences. A common chief would help bring in a lot of synergy, but it is not difficult to see the consequences.
There have been blatant misuse of the investigating agencies to crush political dissent and ‘upend the fundamental premises of a representative democracy. The agencies are also allegedly being used to facilitate horse trading so as to install pro-BJP dispensations in states. We are all too familiar with what happened in Maharashtra, Karnataka and other states, where the central agencies have been used as a political tool to change the situation in favour of the ruling party at the Centre.
It has been pointed out that while under 60 percent of the political leaders investigated by CBI between 2004 and 2014 were from opposition parties, over 95 percent cases launched under the Modi government targeted opposition politicians. The same pattern is the case with ED, which has seen 95 percent of investigations being targeted against political opponents. (IPA Service)
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