CBI affidavit puts govt in a quandary

Cong fears law minister's conduct could bring PM under spotlight; uproar may wash out House session

The issue of what to do with Law Minister Ashwani Kumar is haunting the government, following an affidavit by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director, Ranjit Sinha, in the Supreme Court today.

The CBI chief said in the affidavit the law minister, and officials in the coal ministry and the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) discussed, debated and amended the draft status report on the coal block allocation scam before it was presented to the court, "as desired" by the law minister. This contradicts what Additional Solicitor General Harin Raval had earlier told the court, that none from the political executive had seen the report.

The development militates against all previous Supreme Court guidelines concerning government guidance of an autonomous investigative agency such as CBI.

The CBI director told the court the final report being filed in the court "has not been shared with any political executive in any manner whatsoever." In respect of further status reports of the investigations in this matter, he said: "I undertake and assure this court that the same shall not be shared with any political executive."

Within hours of the presentation of the affidavit, Parliament saw an uproar and both Houses had to be adjourned for the day. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath asserted there was no reason for the law minister to resign. But, privately, sources conceded that this view was being taken because the government would have no option: If Kumar was made to step down, the spotlight would fall squarely on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Privately, several Congress Members of Parliament (MPs) and ministers told Business Standard the law minister had no business interfering with the work of CBI.

Kumar himself said: "Truth will prevail." He added: "I am not the political executive, I am the law minister."

But Opposition parties have taken the stance that matters would not rest till they had Kumar's head. To save what remained of the Budget session, Nath rushed to meet senior Opposition leaders to plead for clearing the financial businesses of the session - passing the Finance Bill and other Budget-related legislation - on May 6 and 7. But barring an understanding on this, MPs were almost unanimous that the session would be a washout.

The big trouble of the day for the government was the CBI affidavit revealing how much the government interferes with the functioning of the agency.

A three-judge bench, headed by R M Lodha, had on March 12 directed CBI to file an affidavit clarifying whether the status report of March 8 was vetted only by the director and "nothing containing there has been shared with the political executive." Today's affidavit was filed in response to that order. The case will come up in the court on Tuesday.

When the cases were taken up at the previous hearing, the judges pointedly asked CBI if the status report given to the court was shown to any political authority.

During the previous hearing, there appeared to be differences between the government's stand and that of CBI. While the judges stated that there seemed to be a violation of the procedure and favouritism to a small group of companies, Attorney General G E Vahanvati vehemently denied any unfair or arbitrary policies were adopted in the allocation of coal blocks by the United Progressive Alliance-I, during 2006-09. "CBI is not the final word on this," the counsel said.

The judges had warned: "If we find the procedure was not followed, the entire allocations will go."

If the court cancels all allocations on April 30 because the procedure was not followed, the Opposition's job could become easier. It is already preparing an argument that all matters relating to coal block allocation were ruled by cronyism, not transparent rules. To cover up this evidence, goes the allegation, the government was ready to go to any lengths, including interfering with the working of CBI.