As a damage control move, the Narendra Modi government on Tuesday night divested all powers from CBI Director Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana amid the ongoing spat between them. As an interim measure, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has given charge of the CBI to Joint Director M Nageswar Rao, an Odisha-cadre officer, a government order said. This is for the first time the CBI has come under such cloud with its top bosses washing the dirty linen in public as well as Delhi High Court. 

For the last few days newspapers  24X7 channels  have been replete with accounts of the internal feud between CBI’s number one officer Alok Verma and number two officer Rakesh Asthana. The matter has come to such a pass that the top boss has got a case registered against his deputy. This is not only unprecedented but also a serious assault on the credibility of an institution that was until recently referred to as the ‘premier investigation agency’ of India. It was routine, until recently, that state governments, courts of law and even ordinary people wanted cases to be transferred to the CBI and investigated by it. They would turn to the CBI when they had no faith left in any other investigative agency. 

All that seems to have changed overnight, and in an irreparable manner. The prestige, credibility and image of the agency have been sent down the drain in what seems to be a clash of egos. Disputes, differences of opinion, ego wars are common in any organisation, but there are always ways and means to deal with them in a decent and graceful manner. They are best resolved internally. When things go out of hand in the case of government organisations, there is an intervention of the concerned ministry or even senior offices.  No one seems to understand what is at stake. The authority of any law enforcement agency rests not so much on its legal powers but on the mystique that surrounds it in the minds of offenders of law.  In the last few days the CBI has lost this mystique.