Corruption, Separatism Issues Swamp India FBI

India’s version of the FBI, already swamped by corruption investigations, has stretched itself thinner by joining the fight against separatist movements.

The Central Bureau of Investigation has been in the news most often for probing deals made while Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was in office. Gandhi lost his job in November’s elections to anti-corruption candidate V. P. Singh.

Now the bureau also is handling routine murder cases in troubled Jammu-Kashmir state, pursuing anti-terrorist investigations in violent Punjab and looking into a tribal revolt in faraway Assam.

The man with his finger in the dike is Rajendra Shekhar, director general of the bureau, a 55-year-old career police official from the western desert state of Rajasthan.

“I’m losing weight,” he said in an interview. “We’re the busiest we’ve ever been.”

Shekhar looked worn out. These days he drinks jasmine tea with lime, which is supposed to improve his appetite.

Faced with local police forces that are too busy, too frightened or too partisan, Shekhar directed his agents to take over investigations in Kashmir. At least 300 people have been killed in the northwestern state since the government cracked down on a Muslim separatist movement in January.

Just south of Kashmir, bureau agents are investigating separatist violence by Sikh extremists in Punjab state.

Many Punjab police are virtually confined to their barracks because they are favorite targets of Sikh extremists, who have killed more than 5,800 people in Punjab since 1987.

In Assam, a remote northeastern state, bureau agents are looking closely at the Bodos, an animist tribe that believes spirits live in rocks and trees. The Bodos want a separate state within India and have attacked Assamese Hindus.

The real work of Shekhar’s agency, however, is fighting corruption.

India’s British colonial rulers established the Central Bureau of Investigation soon after World War II to investigate links between Indian businessmen and the government. That work continued after independence in 1947.

Of the 1,200 cases filed by the bureau’s 3,907 agents every year, about 1,000 are corruption-related, Shekhar said.

Corruption is the grease of South Asia’s wheels.

Traffic cops routinely take “baksheesh,” small cash payments, to ignore violations. Businessmen consider payoffs and kickbacks part of the job.

Shekhar said the problem has been growing.

Industrialization, inflation, development, unemployment--all contribute to it, he said, and “the facets that give impetus to corruption are getting more and more pronounced.”

Preliminary charges have been filed in three cases involving members of Gandhi’s government. Two concern alleged payment of bribes by Europe’s Airbus Industrie consortium and Hawaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft, a West German submarine manufacturer.

A former high-level civil servant was charged in connection with a $1.47-billion Airbus deal for 38 planes and a former defense secretary was named in a case involving four West German submarines worth $334 million.

The agency also has filed preliminary charges related to a $1.4-billion artillery contract with the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors. Bureau investigators have charged Bofors with cheating India out of $37 million and Indian government officials, not identified, with criminal misconduct.

Charges related to an alleged political dirty tricks campaign against the son of Prime Minster Singh are expected soon.

Western diplomats say the growing scope of bureau responsibility is a sign local police cannot cope with the level and complexity of crime in India.

It also indicates, they say, that the central government does not trust local officials.

“Under these circumstances, it’s easy for the law enforcement process to break down,” a diplomat said, on condition of anonymity. “The bureau is stretched too thin. They don’t have good relations with local police, and the crooks keep committing crimes.”

Critics say many of the bureau’s investigations are politically motivated.

Charges of corruption haunted the Gandhi administration. Singh, formerly Gandhi’s finance minister, quit the government when his corruption investigations were stymied.

Diplomats say there appears to be vindictiveness in the investigations, and cite the one concerning the prime minister’s son.

By forcing the bureau to concentrate on what many consider a minor case, Singh’s administration is using law enforcement to fight its political battles, another Western diplomat said.

Shekhar denied that his bureau could be used for political purposes.

“Our work has nothing to with politics,” he said. “If we think the case is legitimate, we investigate.”

Shekhar made his mark late in his career when he led the investigation of one of India’s biggest bank robberies, the theft of $3.35 million from the Punjab National Bank in 1987.

Ten of the original 24 suspects wound up dead, but Shekhar says the police didn’t kill them.

Several others disappeared and only a few were convicted and jailed. In the Indian context, the case was considered a success.

The director general looks at his current post in a similar light: Incremental steps can be taken, but no major changes should be expected.

“If we can set an example with one or two corruption cases, I suppose we are doing our job,” Shekhar said. “But, then again, nobody could pay any attention.”