Missing a Centre

After the law minister was made to resign,for having vetted a confidential CBI report,the court justifiably insisted that the government devise ways to free the agency from political interference. In the case of the controversial coal block allocations,a measure of that autonomy has arguably been at work given who the agencys investigations have singed. Yet,troubling questions remain unanswered. That there is more spectacle than fact in the public domain in a crucial case,however,is not entirely because of the CBI. The government must take the larger share of the blame. Its studied silence and stoic refusal to take ownership of its own policy on coal block allocation during the period under scrutiny takes away the pressure on investigators to make their case more rigorously. It leaves the field open for them to play to the gallery.

And it is not just the CBI. In recent times,an intricate network of checks and balances has seemed imperilled due to other institutions often assuming overweening roles,attempting to fill the space vacated by a weak or silent political executive. These players and institutions have sensed a building climate of hostility towards the political class and the government,and cast themselves as the stern correctors. But this has often been in ways that blur or undermine their own professional remit. Again,in the matter of the coal allocations,the CAG came up with a loss figure of a headline-making Rs 10.7 lakh crore in its draft report it later revised it to a sixth of that amount. Constitutionally mandated to audit government receipts and expenditures and hold the executive to account,the CAG has set itself a more ambitious agenda in recent years,seeing its role as an activist one,trying to corner the government with its findings,armed with more zeal than facts.

This perception of executive underreach is shared by the courts,too. There has been a tide of judicial activism in the UPAs second term,as courts are no longer adjudicating disputes between parties but actively stepping in to resolve matters of governance. In the last couple of years,the judiciary has even stepped into legislative and administrative functions,while also,mercifully,correcting some of its own excesses as when it prescribed that natural resources could be allocated through auctions alone,or summarily stopped all mining in two states,or when it decided how information commissioners were to be appointed. Its late in the day,but the UPA must realise the damage its own apparent effeteness and abdication is doing not only to itself but also to the delicate balance between institutions.