Newsmaker: Alok Verma, who has a challenging stint for CBI chief

A 1979-batch Indian Police Service officer of the AGMUT, Verma will have a fixed two-year tenure

Alok Verma, the newly appointed Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is in the crosshairs of a political tug of war. The Congress party has put on record that it does not agree with the government’s choice. 

Verma, police commission of Delhi for close to a year, deserves better. Admittedly, he is not a CBI man, not having risen up its ladder. However, he is technically qualified for the post. A 1979-batch Indian Police Service officer of the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territories) cadre, Verma will have a fixed two-year tenure as CBI chief. He had earlier served as Director General of Delhi’s prisons network.

The list of those considered for the job has not been made public. The selection committee is a panel of three – the prime minister, the head of the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha and either the country’s chief justice or a judge nominated by him from the Supreme Court. They choose from a shortlist sent on from the home ministry and then the department of personnel.

It is not clear whether the Congress is opposing Verma for the sake of opposition or because it believes he has been appointed so that the government can dictate to him. Either way, the party’s stance is monstrously unfair to the new incumbent.

“I said that a person who fulfils all the conditions, who has a long service record, should be appointed. A person who has worked in the CBI, on corruption cases, should be given the post. They have ignored that,” said Congress senior and leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, in his dissent note.
 

Earlier, Rakesh Asthana, an IPS officer from the Gujarat cadre was named interim director.

R K Dutta, who has served as CBI additional director, seems to have been preferred by the Congress. The party says, “He was eligible for the Director’s post but the government brought in someone from outside”. Dutta was earlier moved from the CBI to the home ministry. This sulking and bad blood Verma will have to address in the two years ahead. He will be in the hot seat because he will serve in 2018 and into 2019, the year of general elections. The CBI is the country’s premier investigative establishment and he will have to address its morale.