The Central Bureau of investigation (CBI) is a tool that the Congress misuses invariably to make sure that its opponents and equally “opportunist” allies fall in line and not do anything that has the potential of destabilizing what many in the country term as the most corrupt, highly arrogant and exceptionally anti-democratic and anti-people government the country has seen in the last 65. That it brazenly browbeats, threatens and frightens them, sometimes behind the curtains and sometimes openly, to retain control over power is not a secret.

It is a different matter that those whom the Congress warns off and on to behave, failing which the CBI would pounce upon them, are also not above board. They, like the Congress, are also involved from head-to-toes in corruption and loot and plunder of resources, natural or otherwise. You fleece the nation like we fleece and give us unflinching support is the Congress’s doctrine of governance, or so it seems.  

The CBI searches at the residence of MK Stalin, son of DMK supremo M Karunanidhi and a former Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, on grounds that he illegally imported cars worth Rs 20 crore, needs to be viewed in this context. (The charge may be well-founded, but was not established at the time of the raid.)

What is pertinent are the circumstances in which the CBI conducted these searches. As everyone knows, the raids were conducted immediately after the DMK severed its relations with the UPA Government following differences over the issue of Sri Lankan Tamils. As Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley pointed out in the Rajya Sabha, the Centre was “blatantly interfering” in the functioning of the CBI and “crippling it for political reasons.

Taking on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Jaitley said, “If this was a search in the normal course of CBI investigation, CBI is entitled to carry out that search. What business does the government have or the political regime have to interfere in CBI and start stopping that search?”

And that is the crux of the matter. Merely because the raid has a political fallout, it is improper for any Prime Minister or Finance Minister to so blatantly interfere in the functioning of CBI and cripple it from carrying on its “routine investigations”. In  other words, the raid was either routine, or it was not, that is to say, it was political.

The much-maligned CBI, which is being contemptuously dubbed as “Congress Bureau of Investigation” and “Congress Bachao Investigation”, stopped searches after the cornered and condemned authorities in South and North Blocks intervened on realising that the searches at Stalin’s residence would prove counter-productive. So, calling off the raid, the CBI announced that there was “no FIR against Stalin” and that it was “looking for a car on a complaint by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI)”, which Chidambaram controls. How ridiculous!

The March 22 CBI raids in Chennai and elsewhere in the state – barring at Stalin’s residence – to seize “illegally” imported cars, were a desperate attempt to hoodwink the nation, help Congress and tell the DMK that the raids which Stalin called “political vendetta” had nothing to do with the decision to withdraw support to the UPA Government. Congress still believes that the DMK will come to its rescue as and when required and help it avert its impending disaster.

When exposed and cornered by the opposition parties over the CBI raids in Chennai, P Chidambaram rushed to the media and expressed anger over the CBI raids: “I strongly disapprove of the action of the CBI. It will be misunderstood. I am afraid it has already been misunderstood. I have spoken to the minister concerned. I am not aware of the case.”

At almost the same time, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath, looking clueless and extremely angry, condemned the CBI. “I thoroughly disapprove (of) the CBI raids and condemn it. However much we condemn it, it would be less,” he lamented. Kapil Sibal expressed similar shock, “someone has played a trick”.

Chidambaram’s statement at about 8.30 am from his Delhi official residence had an impact on the Prime Minister and AICC president Sonia Gandhi, who actually controls the establishment, sans any responsibility. The Prime Minister promptly distanced his unpopular minority government from the CBI action, saying it had “no role” in the development and that he was feeling quite “upset” over the event. “We are all upset at these events. The government had no role in this; that I am sure of. We will find out the details. This should not have (happened). The time of the raid is most unfortunate,” he told reporters.

Sonia Gandhi in turn “questioned” the minister concerned, V Narayansamy, but he sang the same song and said that he and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had “no role” in the development. Narayansamy added that the matter would be probed and the guilty punished.

The manner in which the Prime Minister and important colleagues (and trouble-shooters) and Sonia Gandhi behaved, and the way the Parliamentary Affairs Minister condemned the CBI, should leave no one in doubt that the Congress-dominated UPA Government has outlived its utility and is unfit to govern such a vast nation.

This must be the first time in its history that the nation has witnessed a situation in which those at the helm of affairs claimed they were not aware of what has been going on under their very noses. It is disturbing that the nation has a dispensation which doesn’t know who is doing what and in which direction.

Yet, it is difficult (read impossible) to believe that the CBI conducted the raids on its own.