Directors’ special

It is, I admit, tough to take one’s eyes away from the fascinating spectacle of the Congress and Janata Dal polls. (How often do we see fairy-tales come to life in the shape of `Snowhite and the Three Dwarfs’ at Akbar Road, while `Tweedledum and Tweedledee batter each other senseless at JD headquarters?)

Nevertheless, the Prime Minister and the Home Minister deserve our attention. Because, in most un-Indra like fashion, Inder Kumar Gujral and Indrajit Gupta have been turning up the heat on lesser mortals — namely the Directors of the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate.

Oddly enough, Messrs Bezbaruah (ED) and Joginder Singh (CBI) can feel the gazpacho lapping around their ankles for precisely opposite reasons. The complaint against Joginder Singh is that he talks too much. But Bezbaruah’s stiff upper lip isn’t saving him from his masters.

Both Directors have been in trouble for quite a while. On March 30, H.D. Deve Gowda was preparing the ground to remove Joginder Singh. But Singh was acting under judicial supervision in some cases. Courtesy demanded that the Chief Justice be told of Singh’s impending doom. Deve Gowda was supposed to do just that over tea on March 30.

But Sitaram Kesri’s quixotic coup diverted everyone, most successfully. Joginder Singh had won a reprieve. To his credit, he seems to have learnt from the past. When he retires in due course, the CBI shall be in better repute than when he took charge.

But in today’s polluted political atmosphere being efficient is to make enemies. If Singh presses forward too hard in an investigation, he is accused of “witch-hunting”. If he tries to take the public along with him, he is accused of being far too “vocal”.

Anyone who watched the motion of confidence moved by Gujral knows about our current Prime Minister’s view on poor, persecuted witches. But did you know he criticised voluble officers to a conference of bemused Chief Ministers?Oh well, such outbursts are par for the course for Gujral. He is, after all, the man who criticised the Civil Aviation Ministry on foreign soil (a display that rivalled Rajiv Gandhi sacking the Foreign Secretary at a Press conference, in response to a Pakistani’s question).

Unhappily, it is a disease that seems to be catching. Home Minister Indrajit Gupta has also started choosing unusual fora in which to deliver his thunderbolts. Gupta opted for the distant Thrissur in Kerala to inveigle against talkative investigators. (Unkind souls insist this was a ploy to deflect embarrassing questions on the CPI’s miserable enrollment figures in Kerala!)

As it happens, the Union Home Minister wasn’t content merely to criticise. He also held up Bezbaruah, the `silent’ Director of the ED as a role-model for his fellows.

I wonder if the Home Minister’s enthusiasm is echoed by his own colleagues. For Bezbaruah too has been under attack as far back as Deve Gowda’s day. It is said the Finance Minister himself petitioned the Prime Minister for a different man. Deve Gowda refused sanction.

What did Bezbaruah do to make himself so unpopular? Some say it was his role in probing a mysterious ten thousand pound sterling deposit at Barclays, London. But he is involved in so many sensitive cases that it could be any one of half a dozen.

There is, to name but one, the Jain Hawala Case. When investigators in the ED refer to such a probe, they are not talking about Surinder Jain, his famous diary, or the men named in it. No, they are talking of a different Jain and quite another set of questionable transactions.

Bezbaruah isn’t talking, but others are less reticent. They speak of unusual attention from the Prime Minister’s Office. They speculate on the Finance Minister’s apparent intention to “monitor” the case personally. By any indication, these officers are under considerable pressure.

Or, worse, face direct interference. In another case a team was supposed to fly to Toronto to probe into the dealings of a very prominent leader. It was cancelled at the very last minute.

Some say that Bezbaruah is on the verge of being pushed aside. `Operation Remove Bezbaruah’ might have been tougher had the Director chosen to break silence earlier.

That, of course, is the ploy brilliantly used by Joginder Singh. The CBI Director has made transparency the keynote of his activities. If anyone touches him now it is sure to be read as a politically motivated decision.Fortune proverbially favours the brave. In recent months, the CBI Director has had a run of good luck. The CBI has nabbed Karsan executives in Geneva, and brought Bhansali from Hong Kong.

It may be that neither of the Directors will be touched. But that is only half the story. The other half is the general aura of drift that seems to be the hallmark of the current administration. Nobody seems to be concerned about taking a decision on various recommendations made by the CBI quite some time ago.

The CBI wants fifty-two files to be declassified, to help prosecute the Bofors case. The answer is silence.

The CBI is seeking permission to prosecute Satish Sharma for his various acts of commission and omission in doling out petrol stations and gas agencies. The government isn’t answering.

The CBI wants permission to prosecute Shiela Kaul and Thungon for allocating shops to friends and relatives. There is no response.

Voluntarily or by default, the Deve Gowda Ministry gave the various investigating agencies their head. It is still an open question whether the current set-up will continue to do so.

But the omens aren’t happy. When the Prime Minister lashes out at “witch-hunting”, a message goes out. When the Home Minister praises the virtues of “silence”, the message is reinforced.

The message is that the two Indras give a hoot about taking probes seriously. This could be wrong, but if so one of the two should say so loud and clear. Or do they truly believe silence to be golden?