PM’s Security Lapse: Central and State Investigating Agencies barred by the SC: Lalit K Kaul
PM’s Security Lapse: Central and State Investigating Agencies barred by the SC
Lalit K Kaul
As per the newspaper reports, based
on a PIL (on PM’s security breach) filed by Advocates’ Body Lawyers Voice in
the Supreme Court before the bench comprising Chief Justice, Sri N V Ramana and
other justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli; the investigative (administrative)
machinery respectively in the State and Centre came to a screeching halt. For,
the SC decreed on Monday, the 10th of January 2022, that it will
appoint a retired SC judge led high level panel to inquire in to the incident
and fix accountability of erring officials.
The court iterated its oral advice
to both the Centre and Punjab government not to proceed further with their
separate probes in to the matter. It also objected to the Centre issuing show
cause notices to the Punjab Chief Secretary, DGP and five other State officers
when the apex court was already seized of the matter. The court said that it
would soon pass orders to set up the probe committee led by the retired judge.
Prior to asking the State and Centre
to withhold their investigations, the SC on 7th January 2022 had
ordered the Registrar General of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, assisted by
the Chandigarh DGP and a senior NIA official, to immediately “seize, secure and
preserve” all documents with the Punjab government and the central agencies
relating to the security lapses leading to PM’s motorcade getting struck over a
flyover while ordering that the Centre and Punjab should cease their inquiries
in to the unprecedented episode. The response of the Centre and Punjab
government to this order of the SC was as under:
Centre: The incident had grave national security
implications and a potential international embarrassment for India. A signal
must go from the SC that such lapses cannot be condoned and accountability as
well as responsibility would be fixed.
Punjab Govt.: Let there be an independent and
impartial probe in to the incident. The Punjab government has nothing to hide
and is not attempting to brush the serious issue under the carpet. We want the
incident to be thoroughly investigated.
Response of Centre and Punjab Govt.:
Punjab government’s response
implicitly admits that ensuring independent and impartial probe may
not/couldn’t have been possible, if State agencies were to do so; the
investigations may not turn out to be thorough; the government’s unsolicited
assertion “government has nothing to hide and is not attempting to brush the
serious issue under the carpet” is indicative of the murky intentions it had
harboured insofar as investigations were concerned, but the SC decree put paid
to its designs.
The Centre’s response is an
embarrassment for anybody gifted with commonsense; why couldn’t a signal have
gone from the government? Why SC? Has the Centre admitted of its incompetence
in regard to fixing responsibility and accountability? Is “a potential
international embarrassment for India” more important than lapse in the
security of our PM?
That the Centre and the State were
conducting independent inquiries, is indicative of the mistrust that defines
their mutual relationship and also informs a discerning mind of the dirty
politics that the politicians play even when it comes to as sensitive an issue
as the PM’s security. Both chose to catch on to the SC initiative to relieve
them of any serious responsibility. If the SC has to take up investigations
then the agencies meant to investigate such cases need to be wound up as they
are sheer overheads on the tax payer and the budget spent on them can be
utilized by investing in various public schemes.
The Punjab Political Scenario:
There is Congress party government
in Punjab. The question that begs an answer is: had the PM been from the
Congress party, would there have been a security lapse? Simple and commonsense
based answer is: no. That’s where the problem starts and the questions begin to
rise that point toward some sinister designs of the Congress led government in
Punjab.
The PM is not a Congress candidate
and therefore any inquiry in to the sordid episode by the Punjab based
investigating agencies shall not be acceptable to the BJP. The accusation
slapped on the government would be that it would not allow the agencies to
probe in to the matter independently and therefore the report submitted by such
an inquiry would be a farce in that it would have been fabricated to exonerate
the government of any lapses on its part.
Reversing the scenario: Congress PM
and BJP government in Punjab; the responses from the Congress would not be much
different; but then, perhaps, the BJP government wouldn’t dare to venture in to
such a risky act.
This kind of mistrust is deep rooted
for the reason that it is a known fact that all the institutions in a State are
handmaiden of the party in power. The bureaucracy is so spineless and filled
with opportunistic personnel that majority of its personnel prefer to toe the
line of their political bosses in the hope that, one day, it will fetch them
plum posting and help them in their career growth.
Investigation by the CBI:
That CBI is/has always been
handmaiden for the government of the day and is not independent in the true
sense of the word, is understood by the ordinary citizens of our country who
are blessed with good commonsense. The Punjab government response to the inquiry
by the CBI would be similar to the BJP’s response to the inquiry by the State
agencies.
Loss of Credibility:
Seventy five years of Independent
India have groomed its important and sensitive institutions in a way that they
have lost their credibility in peoples’ eyes; be it CBI, IT, ED and other State
agencies because of the way they perform and the results their much publicized
efforts yield. Judiciary and the judicial system is no exception to this
general perception that justice/manipulation of law is only for the powerful as
is the lifelong bail while, in contrast, thousands languish in jails without a
court hearing!
The SC is being Presumptuous:
That the SC ordered stoppage of
inquiries initiated by the central and state governments, is indicative of the
kind of virtuous tag the court arrogates on to itself. The arrogance underlying
the decree of the SC is that only the committee sponsored by it is capable of
unearthing the truth in a most independent, unbiased and incorruptible way. The
SC verdict also undermines the other institutions in the country that have
constitutional validity and are to perform certain duties for which their
personnel are paid salaries by the tax payers.
While it may be incredible to know
that a PIL can bring central and state government administrative machinery to a
screeching halt, but it also tells us how untrustworthy the institutions in our
country have become in the eyes of the SC. The icing on the cake is that the
central and state governments applaud the initiative of the SC and thereby
admit to their administrative failure insofar as country’s governance is
concerned.
The SC has been administrating our
country by way of decrees on pollution control, road widening, manhole
diameters, removal of garbage from Delhi roads and colonies and banning of
diesel cars, etcetera. That the SC has had to intervene in matters that pertain
to governance, is proof enough of the fact that the administrative machinery
has collapsed in Delhi, as elsewhere in the country.
Our country would be better off if
the SC constitutes a committee to thoroughly investigate in to the state of
affairs in courts (civil & criminal) at different levels in our country and
it would foremost be concerned with the corruption prevalent in the courts,
spread across the judges and lawyers as also with finding out a mechanism that
would ensure speedy trial of cases so that lives are not wasted in jails; the
SC also need to find out why the accused are languishing in jails for years
without a court hearing; why the VVIP accused get lifetime bail and innocents
languish in the jails.
The degenerate Political System:
The SC order to immediately “seize,
secure and preserve” all documents with the Punjab government and the central
agencies relating to the security lapses leading to PM’s motorcade getting
struck over a flyover is no guarantee that the documents won’t have been
tempered with before handing over their custody to the Registrar General of the
Punjab and Haryana High Court. The political bosses both in the State and
Centre shall ensure that the documents relevant to the case shall be factual to
the extent that they support and forward the already formulated view by the
respective governments – conspiracy theory by the central government and no
security lapse theory by the state government. Bureaucracy is always more than
willing to be eternal “yes men” for their political bosses for the sake of
their career growth. The scarce specie, miniscule in numbers, personifying
professional integrity and ethics in the bureaucracy, are, as per unwritten
law, always burdened with some innocuous jobs. The SC should know it better
than anybody else. Therefore it may not be a surprise to the SC panel if the
two sets of documents have nothing in common, as they might have been prepared
to grind some political axe at both the central and state levels.
Need to Introspect:
In the past many commissions of
inquiry have been constituted headed by a retired judge; who can forget Shah
Commission report. Yet the indisputable fact remains that these commissions
have not helped in fixing responsibilities upon, and seeking accountability from,
the concerned in the bureaucracy and their political bosses. It has been a
total waste of time, resources and tax payer’s money.
Comments
Post a Comment