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The CBI did a splendid job in probing the revived Priyadarshini Mattoo murder case. Contrast this with its handling of political cases.
Right now George Fernandes is under the scanner. He allegedly received bribes in the Israeli Barak deal. Under the media’s glare a Tehelka tape was quoted by the CBI spokesman to nail Fernandes. In the tape, former Samata Party treasurer R.K. Jain mentioned a two crore payment to Jaya Jaitly, a functionary of the same party and close to Fernandes. The name Fernandes doesn’t figure in the tape. But he was the president of the party. Jaitly had access to his house. Ergo, Fernandes is charged.
Who is R.K. Jain? He’s the gent who, in the earlier Tehelka expose, made charges against Yashwant Sinha. Threatened with defamation, Jain collapsed, apologised, admitted to lying—and was off the hook! Connected to the same case, this is what Aniruddha Bahal, a senior Tehelka journalist, said about R.K. Jain’s "secretly" taped remarks: "Jain and Gupta talked to Mathew first. Then they replicated these things which are on tape to me. Jain cooked up something when talking to (Mathew) Samuel, then he was trying to re-cook the story for me." Really? And he didn’t know what he was doing?
Don’t get me wrong. I am not for a moment defending or accusing Fernandes. It’s reckless to judge politicians! But the CBI has become an instrument of vendetta. In the past, it has changed tune dramatically with change of government. On Bofors, the CBI made diametrically opposite statements under different governments.
Just recently, the public was avidly following the Volcker and Scorpene scams in which some Congress leaders figured. What happened to them? Are they still around? It seems not. It’s much easier for the CBI to talk about George Fernandes and Jaya Jaitly than about Natwar Singh and Sonia Gandhi. Soniaji—as Fernandes too was once—is the president of her party. The Congress was named in the Volcker report. Following the same logic as in the Barak deal, why didn’t the CBI charge her too?
To function effectively, the CBI must be liberated from political control. Like the Election Commission, it can be made a constitutional authority accountable to the President. But that would require revising the President’s own role. Who wants that?
(Puri can be reached at rajinderpuri2000@yahoo.com)