Instruments of power

Jagan Reddys takedown of the CBI should worry the Congress.

Andhra Pradesh politics has been roiled again,this time by a CBI report that takes on Jaganmohan Reddy,and also names his late father and the Congresss former mainstay in the state,Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. Twenty-six MLAs and two MPs have resigned,claiming they could not take the insult to their departed leader. They have written a blistering letter to the Congress,and its seeming commitment to erasing YSRs image from the hearts of the people,dropping his welfare schemes,even trying to brand him as criminal.

Their accusations are at least partly true the Congress has tried its best to deny and disavow YSRs legacy,perhaps because that idea can be easily exploited by his son,Jagan. Instead of making a bid for YSRs memory and carrying on his strategies (his famous padayatras and welfare schemes,his co-opting of the opposition),the Congress has relied on people like Chiranjeevi to counter his charisma and question his integrity.

There is another,troubling aspect to this drama: the claim that this FIR is motivated,that the CBI is again acting as the tool of a vindictive Congress. The CBI,our premier investigative agency,certainly has a sorry history of political pliability. The Congress,because of its long years at the Centre and its past disregard for the independence of such critical institutions,cannot escape the blame for this perception. Despite the 1997 Supreme Court judgment that reminded it of its mandate and its autonomy,the CBI has been the governments little helper it has appeared to oblige the Congress over Ottavio Quattrochhi and the BJP over the Babri riots,it has conveniently retracted its own assessments over and over again. It has now got to the point that any accused person,from Mayawati to Jaganmohan Reddy,can blithely shrug off the CBIs charges as political vendetta. This situation corrodes the credibility of our public investigators,it also hurts the Congress. Allowing the CBI to be scrupulously independent is a political essential for the government. Which is why the recent decision to keep the CBI out of RTI scrutiny,for instance,makes little sense.