Former West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi
At a function to mark its 50-year celebrations, the CBI got an earful from its own guest speaker, former West Bengal governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi, who described the investigating agency as the government's hatchet and dirty tricks department.
"The CBI has a very mixed image. Not all of it is flattering. It is seen as Government's hatchet, rather than honesty's ally. It is often called DDT - meaning not dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, the colourless, tasteless, odourless insecticide it should be, but the Department of Dirty Tricks," Mr Gandhi said at the DP Kohli Memorial Lecture organised by the CBI.
This perception, however valid, needs to change, he added.
CBI director Ranjit Sinha and several senior officers of the investigating agency were present when the former bureaucrat shared his blunt critique and argued for bringing the agency within the Right to Information Act. "The CBI is clothed in opacity, then ornamented by secrecy and finally perfumed by mystery," he said.
Mr Gandhi, 69, also said the CBI should be autonomous but not unaccountable to people.
"The Director of the CBI, like an Army or Air Force or Navy Chief, should be totally independent professionally but not a loose cannon. (He) should be a phenomenal instrument, not a self-operating robot. He and his Bureau should be guardians of the law, never a law unto themselves," he said.
His words were seized by the BJP, which has been accusing the government of misusing the CBI has a tool for vendetta. "We have always said the CBI is partisan," said the party's Prakash Javadekar.
The Congress' Ajay Maken said, "I totally disagree."
Speaking to NDTV, Mr Gandhi stood by his criticism of the CBI. "There is no need to add to my speech. The CBI responded positively to what I said," he said.