Not this kind of closure, CBI

"Asked by the courts to investigate the infamous Hari Masjid incident of the 1993 Mumbai riots, the country's premier investigation agency, CBI, has closed the case saying it can find no 'neutral' witnesses."

Upbraiding the government for its half-hearted approach and demolishing the CBI's reluctance to take up what it described as a "simple" case, the Court remarked that this was a "case that affects the very soul of India." The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : Not this kind of closure, CBI

But as Mumbai's riot victims have found out, what judges say matters little to the State and to policemen. The courts haven't failed the victims, the State has!

The parties that rule Gujarat, Maharashtra and the Centre, and their police, must answer one question: how long do they expect Muslim victims, who see their community constantly accused of being terrorists, to keep fighting through courts?

CBI would not hound honest officials

"The decision to arrest a bureaucrat is normally taken at the level of the CBI Director who thinks many times over before agreeing to this course of action."

The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : CBI would not hound honest officials: The complaint by Andhra Pradesh bureaucrats that the CBI is arbitrary in dealing with senior civil servants is only half true. Where the progress of an investigation is dependent mainly on the evidence purely within the knowledge of a Secretary to Government, the latter's arrest may become unavoidable.

The arrests once again bring to focus the contentious subject of minister-civil servant relationship. The penalty for not obliging a capricious and dishonest minister was an unwelcome transfer, a 'Siberian posting,' but these days it is of physical harm to the officer and their family too. This miasmic atmosphere is enough to turn away many a talented lot. But it is also true that senior officers are more than willing to oblige a dishonest minister. This pliability is traced to their greed or a desire to enlarge their career prospects.

A few years of pain resulting from an honest course of action is however very much preferable to the ignominy of criminal action for having been party to dishonesty. This is about the only practical way of surviving in the civil service in our country. This will definitely fetch you peace of mind and an image that everyone around you will talk about for long years, and one you will yourself treasure forever.

'To have an effective CBI and Lokpal, first clear judicial backlog'

Q&A


with Joginder Singh, former director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), discussing "the dynamics existing between the government and the CBI, how the workings of the legal world impact the CBI - and why a Lokpal alone may not end corruption"

Interview - Q&A

-The Times of India, January 11, 2012

'Constitutional Lokpal would have been difficult to repeal'

Q&A


with Justice V N Khare, former chief justice of India, on the constitutional dimensions of the anti-corruption legislation

Interview - Q&A

-The Times of India, December 30, 2011

Think It Through

Freeing the CBI from government control is essential to a strong Lokpal

Article - Think It Through

-The Times of India, December 22, 2011