oppn parties Misuse Of Both Central And State Agencies Must Stop By Making Them Independent

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  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
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Misuse Of Both Central And State Agencies Must Stop By Making Them Independent

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2022-03-30 08:24:54

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

Mamata Banerjee has written to opposition leaders and chief ministers of opposition-ruled states, calling for a conclave to highlight the Centre's (read BJPs) "misuse of central agencies to target opposition-governed states". It needs to be recalled that apart from senior leaders of the TMC, leaders of many opposition parties are facing cases lodged by various central agencies and are regularly questioned, sometimes even called to Delhi for questioning, as in the case of TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee who was summoned to Delhi for questioning for his alleged role in the coal-mining scam. The opposition has called it witch hunting and political vendetta on part of the BJP.

Banerjee's call is timely as the Centre is increasingly using central agencies to target not only opposition leaders but also journalists, social activists and others who are against the government. It is blatant misuse of these agencies and amounts to pure harassment as most of these cases drag on for years without any conviction. The negligible rate of conviction in these targeted cases proves that they are started just for harassing the person or persons. It also shows these agencies in very poor light for not having the expertise to build a water tight case in such high profile cases, even when they have the entire government machinery at their disposal.

But nothing will be solved by just highlighting how the Centre is using these agencies to target dissidents and opposition leaders. States also use the state police and other state agencies to target opposition leaders in the state. The real solution lies in reforming the police force to reduce political interference and making central agencies truly independent. The Supreme Court had called CBI a "caged parrot". Other central and state agencies are also totally under the ruling dispensations. As long as the political class just highlights the misuse when it is against them and keeps mum about freeing these agencies - both central and state - from political interference, nothing will happen and just the targeted persons will keep changing as per the change in governments. 

picture courtesy: mpsctricks.in