In reply to a question during his first press conference in four years, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was an autonomous organisation and that his government did not interfere in its functioning. The question arose because of the way the CBI has been conducting itself and the way it is being seen to facilitate the political agenda of the party or coalition of parties at the Centre. Just consider a couple of recent examples. The CBI took a U-turn in the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's case of disproportionate assets just ahead of the voting on cut motions in Parliament where the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party saved the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government. Interestingly, in this case, the CBI asked for more time from the Supreme Court just a week after it had claimed that it had sufficent evidence against Mayawati. What had changed between the CBI's two divergent stances was just the political situation at the Centre where the UPA government had suddenly turned vulnerable.

Or consider the way the CBI has singled out the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Gujarat for investigation into fake encounters. While successive governments in several states have lamentably patronised fake encounters, the CBI seems interested in pursuing only the one that was carried out in Gujarat.

Given the circumstantial evidence of brazen misuse of the CBI by successive governments at the Centre, do you believe the PM's assertion that his government does not interfere in the CBI's functioning and that the CBI is indeed an autonomous organisation?