The Administrative Reforms Commission has recommended that the CBI, India’s internal investigative and intelligence agency, be overhauled and empowered. This is a sign of uncertainty gaining primacy in a growth period.
The critical shift would be designating the CBI as the primary national agency charged with investigation – something that most states oppose. Supporting such a measure would decrease funding and support for already lagging state police forces.
Other proposed reforms:
- Acting as an information cluster center. The CBI would have authority to act on any information routed to them from diverse agency sources.
- Integrating advanced technology. Much along the FBI model, the parliament is advocated the establishment of advanced forensic departments with research and development capabilities.
- Reducing the number of officers deputized to other agencies. A key part of any upward career move is working for several years at another, preferably federal, agency. For example, Indian Police officers often laterally transfer to the National Security Guard or CBI or Border Security Force.
The larger issue, however, is whether it is appropriate for the CBI to move into the FBI structure. Reforming a large bureaucracy like the CBI is a laborious process requiring significant expenditure of fiscal and political resources. And it takes time. The returns on such an investment would likely fall short of the expectations of this commission given the unique challenges of federalism in India.
Which demands the larger question: is it possible for an emerging India to leapfrog over current advanced state models into a configuration more appropriate for the changing face of warfare?
