Introduction
In the present times when we look at the Intelligence agencies, the first thing that strikes our mind is secrecy – the services must have the benefit of operational secrecy. Because the services work clandestinely and the nature of their tasks requires them to fulfil their obligations in secret, they are at odds with the principle of open society. In cases of these agencies, there arises a conflict between there operational need of secrecy and the democratic objective of accountability. There is need for a balance between operational secrecy granted to the intelligence agencies and their accountability towards the citizens of the country. There could scarcely be a more appropriate time to address the issue of oversight of security and intelligence services. The …show more content…
Although the act of CBI has been disapproved by the members of the congress however the timing of this raid raises a serious question of whether the CBI’s act was an act of revenge and political vendetta. Moreover, former officials such as Joginder Singh and B R Lall have spoken about the prevalence of nepotism and wrongful prosecution and corruption in the CBI. Mr B R Lall who is a former joint director of CBI in his book Who Owns CBI has detailed about how investigations are manipulated and derailed.
In the Bofors Scandal, which is known for the shoddiest investigation done by the CBI, the Government had used the resources of CBI to cover up the scam and ensured that the truth never came out. As a result the accused Ottavio Quattrocchi was removed from the CBI’s most wanted list. This action of the CBI is clearly at the behest of the political establishment and at the cost of its own credibility. In 2011, the chief metropolitan magistrate Vinod Yadav in a petition filed stated the presence of mala fide intentions in the working of the CBI in the Bofors
In the present times when we look at the Intelligence agencies, the first thing that strikes our mind is secrecy – the services must have the benefit of operational secrecy. Because the services work clandestinely and the nature of their tasks requires them to fulfil their obligations in secret, they are at odds with the principle of open society. In cases of these agencies, there arises a conflict between there operational need of secrecy and the democratic objective of accountability. There is need for a balance between operational secrecy granted to the intelligence agencies and their accountability towards the citizens of the country. There could scarcely be a more appropriate time to address the issue of oversight of security and intelligence services. The …show more content…
Although the act of CBI has been disapproved by the members of the congress however the timing of this raid raises a serious question of whether the CBI’s act was an act of revenge and political vendetta. Moreover, former officials such as Joginder Singh and B R Lall have spoken about the prevalence of nepotism and wrongful prosecution and corruption in the CBI. Mr B R Lall who is a former joint director of CBI in his book Who Owns CBI has detailed about how investigations are manipulated and derailed.
In the Bofors Scandal, which is known for the shoddiest investigation done by the CBI, the Government had used the resources of CBI to cover up the scam and ensured that the truth never came out. As a result the accused Ottavio Quattrocchi was removed from the CBI’s most wanted list. This action of the CBI is clearly at the behest of the political establishment and at the cost of its own credibility. In 2011, the chief metropolitan magistrate Vinod Yadav in a petition filed stated the presence of mala fide intentions in the working of the CBI in the Bofors