Earlier this month, CBI Director U.S. Mishra gave a forceful presentation on the lack of functional and financial autonomy for the agency. The place where the CBI boss reportedly made his unusually frank admissions was the CBI Training Academy in Ghaziabad. And guess who comprised his audience? MPs, some of whom were apparently quite taken aback at Mishra’s pique.For the first time, the functioning of the CBI has become a subject of Parliamentary concern. Following the decision of Rajya Sabha’s newly-constituted Standing Committee on Personnel Public Grievances, Law and Justice, to devote an entire report on the CBI, two brain-storming sessions with the CBI top brass have already been conducted.The Committee, will now be visiting CBI’s regional offices and if need be, tour the FBI headquarters in the USA to examine the federal structure of the agency. Among the MPs on the Committee are P.C. Alexander, Ram Jethmalani, Vijay Kumar Malhotra and Mamata Banerjee.Says Congress MP and chairman of the Committee, E.M. Sudarsana Natchiappan, ‘‘We feel the CBI needs a federal identity like the FBI. There is a Supreme Court judgement examining the independence of the CBI but that is not enough. It needs more freedom and dynamism.’’The chairman said that if a visit abroad to examine functioning of other investigating agencies was not possible, the Committee may go in for tele-conferencing with the FBI. ‘‘We are deep into the subject and the issue of the CBI’s demands for modernisation and technology upgradation will also be looked at,’’ he pointed out.Mishra told The Indian Express that after his earlier interactions, he will be making a detailed written presentation for the Standing Committee, focussing on the CBI’s administrative and functional problems and demands. He said he will submit his testimony in a month’s time.Says Mishra, ‘‘I am happy that a Parliamentary Committee is devoting time exclusively on the CBI. I will be making presentations to them on the need for greater autonomy for the agency, our legal constraints as well as the question of CBI’s financial and administrative independence.’’The CBI last year gave the Government an ambitious proposal for modernisation and technology upgradation for the agency, with a financial implication of Rs 20 crore. Natchiappan says this demand has also been routed by the DoPT (now the administrative Ministry under which the CBI functions) to them and that their report will include an Action Taken Report (ATR) on the CBI’s request.
