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Journalism of Courage
Having made a mistake,UPA errs again by waiting to see what it can get away with
The Supreme Court severely censured the CBI on Tuesday for having shared its status report on coal block allocation with the political executive,disregarding the courts specific instruction not to do so. Meanwhile,Assistant Solicitor General Harin Raval accused Attorney General Goolam E. Vahanvati of lying to the court about the matter,and compelling Raval to follow his lead Raval has since resigned. The court has now directed the CBI to provide a candid and truthful affidavit by May 6,explaining why the report was shared,why it claimed to the contrary,and who asked for what changes in the report; the first step forward,it has said,would be to free the CBI of political interference. By all accounts,the UPA is weighing the Supreme Courts observations,to assess the extent to which it is directly indicted,and what it can get away with. This is another error of judgement.
The UPA has already waited too long. It must immediately ask the law minister to resign and investigate the actions of the law officers and the civil servants who read the report. If the UPA does not take corrective action,identify the motives for wrongdoing and punish those who crossed the line,it appears collectively guilty,and worse,brazen about it. For its self-interest,if not for the larger and loftier principle of liberating the CBI from political manipulation,it must act now,instead of waiting for the court to prod and push it further.
