Make CBI apolitical.

Daily Pioneer: Monday, April 09, 2012.

The observations made by the Rajasthan High Court against the Central Bureau of Investigation for its biased attitude towards different accused in the same case, calls for diluting the Union Govern-ment’s control on the probe agency to give it real autonomy.

It is indeed unfortunate that the CBI has been placed under the second schedule of the RTI Act, snatching the rights of vigilant citizens to quiz the agency for its biased role and other such irregularities in its functioning.

Many former CBI chiefs have repeatedly talked about political interference in the working of the country’s premier investigating agency, which is evidently clear when the CBI takes sudden U-turns in cases involving political heavyweights to suit the requirements of the day. It is time that the CBI is placed under the RTI Act. Section 8 of the Act has sufficient provisions for denial of information, including those that can impede the investigating process. Also, the CBI director should be selected by a panel of the kind that selects the Chief Vigilance Commissioner, but only with consensus.