After the Supreme Court’s comments today on the CBI granting bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the ‘caged parrot’ debate has once again started. Is the CBI a caged parrot? The debate started about eleven years ago, when there was a UPA government at the Centre. Even then the Supreme Court had to call the CBI a caged parrot. Now that there is an NDA government at the Centre, the court once made a strong comment on the CBI’s action. The court reminded the CBI of the same parrot. The court has made this comment on the CBI in the Kejriwal case.
While granting bail to CM Arvind Kejriwal in the liquor scam case, the Supreme Court said that the CBI should try to come out of its ‘parrot image’. Relieving CM Kejriwal in Tihar Jail, Justice Bhuiya said that CBI is not a caged parrot. The CBI must prove through its investigations and proceedings that it is an impartial body. His image is not that of a caged parrot.
What was the controversy about caged parrots?
Even about thirteen years ago, the Supreme Court called the CBI a ‘caged parrot’. At that time there was a UPA government at the centre. Dr. Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister of the country. The case was related to the coal allocation scam. On 9 May 2013, the Supreme Court expressed displeasure over the government’s role in investigating the scam. In the same hearing, the court reprimanded both the CBI and the central government. The court called the CBI a caged parrot. The Supreme Court said that the CBI is speaking the same language that its boss has taught it.
What did the director say about the court’s comments?
After this remark of the Supreme Court, this parrot controversy did not end here. The statement of the then CBI Director Ranjit Sinha fueled the controversy. After this he gave a statement in the media that the Supreme Court’s comment was correct. That means CBI is a caged parrot of the government. After this statement of Ranjit Sinha, politics became more heated. The BJP was then in opposition and party leaders intensified their attacks on the UPA government, especially former PM Manmohan Singh.
