Around the world, the problem is to establish and maintain civilian oversight of security/ police agencies, not to remove it. A CBI that is truly independent, that is, accountable to no institution apart from its own presumed professionalism, is a nightmare no one wants to see. If the agency were free to investigate any presumed offence and then choose to not prosecute for reasons best known to itself, it can become a source of extortion, blackmail and subversion of justice. It must be made institutionally accountable.

Making the CBI accountable to the Central Vigilance Commissioner is not much of a reform. Suppose the CVC turns rogue or gets delusions of grandeur and begins to function in an arbitrary, authoritarian fashion, and has the CBI at its disposal to act as it wants to. The result would not be pretty, either. Read More

Jyothi Shankaran

    Jyothi’s last role was as Senior Editor with the business news channel Bloomberg TV India. He also worked as News Editor at business-standard.com, the online version of the business newspaper Business Standard. Jyothi is a chemical engineer from the Regional Engineering College, Srinagar.