PM at CBI Diamond Jubilee
IT WAS a clarion call by Prime Minister Narendra Modi – ‘Fear none and spare none’. Inaugurating the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), he said: “CBI has given hope and strength to the common citizen. People hold protests to demand CBI inquiry as CBI has emerged as a brand for justice. India cannot move forward without professional and efficient Institutions like CBI. From bank frauds to wildliferelated frauds, the CBI’s scope of work has increased manifold but the main responsibility of the CBI is to make the country corruption free.”
The PM further said: “I know that the people against whom you are taking action are very powerful, they have been part of the Government and system for years. Even today they are in power in some states, but you (CBI) have to focus on your work, no corrupt person should be spared. Corruption is not just a small crime. It snatches the rights of the poor and that leads to the birth of many criminals. Besides the corrupt, we are fighting causes of corruption.”
Many speed-breakers
While PM Modi is right in outlining the critical role of the CBI, many speedbreakers need work to ensure that the CBI truly becomes the agency going after the corrupt.
In October 2021, the Supreme Court observed that the “success rate” in cases taken up by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was low. However, in an affidavit filed in court, CBI Director SK Jaiswal said it had achieved a conviction rate of about 65-70 per cent, and would try to raise it to 75 per cent.
One of the prime reasons for this average and the long gestation of cases is the attitude of many states. At present all opposition-ruled states — West Bengal, Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh Andhra Pradesh, and Mizoram – have withdrawn the general consent previously granted to Delhi Special Police Establishment (CBI) under Section 6 of the DSPE Act. The tenth state to do so was Telangana, which in October 2022 withdrew the general consent for the Central Bureau of Investigation barring the investigating agency from investigating the cases in the state. What it means is that every time the CBI needs to investigate any matter in the state it will have to seek permission from the state on a case-by-case basis.
