It is just as well that the CBI has a new boss. The country’s premier investigating agency should not be headless and that too in such inglorious circumstances. The appointment of a rank outsider, Rishi Kumar Shukla, a Madhya Pradesh cadre IPS officer, is a sign that the government wants to put the recent unsavoury controversies about CBI behind and move on, which is the right approach. Shukla, who was recently removed as MP DGP by the new Congress government, is an outsider — so to speak. CBI Directors have traditionally been chosen from within the system; IPS officers who have headed central police organisations or have served time earlier in the agency to be familiar with the workings of the system and the political pressures that come with the job, are preferred. The new incumbent was recently appointed as the relatively innocuous, Chairman of the MP Police Housing Corporation, a position normally accorded to senior policemen in states, who are biding time before superannuation. It must be mentioned though that as DGP MP, Shukla held a position that brings with it accountability and the ability to handle political pressure in large doses. Additionally, he has served a stint in the Intelligence Bureau, which does provide a window to the workings of New Delhi and its labyrinthine bureaucracy. But the CBI is an entirely different cup of tea.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

From a somnolent position in the backwaters of India, Shukla would have his hands full and would need to work under intense scrutiny and public glare. His appointment comes at a time when the investigating agency is going through a leadership crisis and there is rampant discontent among junior officers, who are fed up with frequent transfers. Even more important, the new CBI Director has a slew of cases that need to be tackled on an urgent footing. These include high profile cases like AugustaWestland Chopper scam, coal scam, money laundering charges against Congress leaders P Chidambaram and Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the UP sand mining scam and the probe into the ICICI and its former boss Chanda Kochhar. In Madhya Pradesh, Shukla is credited with having set up the anti-terrorist squad in Bhopal and has wide ranging experience in virtually all aspects of policing, including special task force, economic offences and state armed forces. Shukla’s appointment has not been easy by any chance. The Congress Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, has put out a two-page dissent note saying that the new appointee has no experience of investigation at this level. Kharge has alleged that Shukla’s appointment is “in violation of the DSPE Act and the Supreme Court judgments guiding the CBI Director’s appointment.” Kharge is a part of the three-member panel that decides on the selection. It includes the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of India. Such a beginning to the appointment of one of the most important constitutional positions in the country, hardly augurs well for the system. But it is precisely this that makes the CBI chief’s appointment an even bigger challenge.