Is Modi government placing loyalty over institutions?

The mention of a CBI raid still makes the common Indian pay attention.

India's Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) officials past and present are in revolt against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Ironically, Modi recently inaugurated a long-delayed police memorial in the heart of the capital, during which he theatrically choked up, as he is wont to at odd moments. The CBI officers are not convinced. This is worrying for Modi considering that the CBI still strikes awe in Indians' hearts despite its recent falls from grace (as when the Supreme Court in 2012 called it a 'caged parrot'). In my small-town, for instance, my relatives believed that a particular uncle worked in the CBI (he actually worked in the Intelligence Bureau (IB), a secret organisation). The mention of a CBI raid still makes the common Indian pay attention.
The current revolt began two days after Modi's choking-up. On October 23, CBI director Alok Verma and CBI special director Rakesh Asthana, were sent on leave due to a war of allegations against each other. Verma was appointed in January 2017 by a Modi-led panel, over the dissent by Congress leader of opposition M Mallikarjun Kharge.
In September 2017, Modi sought to place Asthana as CBI number two, so that he could be a fait accompli to succeed Verma, who retires in January 2019. Asthana, a Gujarat cadre police service official, is close to Modi; he served the former Gujarat chief minister by investigating the 2002 Godhra train fire, in which 59 pilgrims died and that led to widespread riots in the state killing nearly a thousand Muslims, as a conspiracy. Verma objected to Asthana's appointment as the latter's service record was less than clean.
Modi may have suspected that Verma was looking into a complaint by jurist Prashant Bhushan and former ministers Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha, that alleged that the Rafale jet fighter deal with Dassault was filled with opacity and unfairly favoured Reliance Defence Ltd, a firm set up ten days before Modi finalised the deal with his French counterpart, Francois Hollande. Congress president Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly cast this deal as an instance of corruption and crony capitalism by Modi, invoking the popular phrase chowkidar chor hai at election rallies in the states currently going to the polls.
Along with Verma, several investigating officers were also transferred out of the CBI headquarters to places like the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, ostensibly to prevent them from pursuing the corruption case against Asthana. One was the lead investigator, Deputy Inspector General Manish Sinha, who was transferred to Nagpur. He petitioned the Supreme Court yesterday to quash his transfer, and made startling revelations: he alleged National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval not only interfered in the investigation into Asthana, but also stymied a CBI search of Asthana's house.
The allegation on the face of it is credible because within government, Doval is the second most powerful person (outside of government it is BJP president Amit Shah). Doval, it has been reported, was the one to urge the chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's spy agency, to complain about the Verma's investigation into Asthana. Modi was greatly annoyed, which led to the post-midnight removals of Verma and Asthana and others.
The others mentioned in the petition as playing a dubious role - some of them apparently took money as well - were minister of state for coal and mines Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary (who is from Gujarat and is close to Modi), law secretary Suresh Chandra (an official close to finance minister Arun Jaitley), Central Vigilance Commissioner KV Chowdhary, and RAW officer Samant Goel.
It has opened a can of worms involving so many agencies that the government will be struggling for the remainder of its terms trying to contain. Possibly another officer will soon file a petition in support of Asthana in the Supreme Court rubbishing these claims.
The other case hurting the ruling dispensation involves a former CBI superintendent of police, Amitabh Thakur, who on Monday told the CBI court that in November 2005, the case of the alleged fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh politically and monetarily benefitted the then Gujarat home minister, Amit Shah. Another witness has already told the CBI court that Sohrabuddin had been contracted to murder dissident BJP minister Haren Pandya in 2003. Another can of worms is slowly emptying out in the public domain at a bad time for Modi and Shah.
It is mysterious how a government that claims to be strong appears to be alienating the muscles of its governance. Of course, right-wing cheerleaders will chant nonsense about the "deep state" but it is clear that in four and a half years, if the very people you appoint are the people who revolt against you, then you're doing something terribly wrong.
Aditya Sinha is a senior journalist based in India and author, most recently, of 'The Spy Chronicles: Raw, ISI and the Illusion of Peace