Cong expects govt to adopt fair, transparent process to select new CBI director

As a high-powered committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets here on Thursday to select the new CBI director, the Congress hoped that the government would select the "most deserving" candidate, following a fair and transparent process.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said the intent of the Lokpal and the Lokayukta Bill was to ensure that the person heading the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was someone who was not seen as a "hand-maiden" of the ruling establishment.

"We expect that the process should be fair, the process would be transparent, the process would have integrity to itself and the most deserving person is selected," he told reporters.

Tewari said the new CBI director should be someone "who is unpartisan, who is fair and whose proximities are not subject to any kind of finger pointing or suspicion".

The high-powered committee is meeting on Thursday evening to select the new CBI chief.

Besides the prime minister, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi and leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge are the other members of the panel.

Tewari said this was the entire intent behind pegging the selection of the CBI chief at the level of a committee consisting of the prime minister, the CJI and the leader of the single-largest party in the Lower House of Parliament.

"Therefore, what we do expect is that what comes out of this deliberation of this process is fair and is judicious," he said.