•Shekhar Gupta: In the world of political journalism expressions like integrity, impeccable honesty, dignity are not often used these days but my guest this week who personifies all that and who in fact as Chief Justice of India many years ago set the standards for many of our institutions and succeeded in many areas but I would submit to you Justice Verma former Chief Justice of India that you also failed in some areas notably the CBI.

J S Verma: Shekhar you are absolutely right and that’s why it is not depressing to me than it would be to anybody else because I had hoped that given the autonomy which the SC had given it in the well known Havala case well it was only for the people who occupied the highest positions in the CBI who could ensure that there could be no extraneous influence on the working but I am sorry to say the public perception which according to me is not unreasonable is that they have not lived up to that expectations.

•Shekhar Gupta: And that failure is on the part of the CBI leadership?

J S Verma: Well certainly it is on the people who are manning and working the CBI and I always say that the man at the top the senior people are more responsible because it is the rule of gravity everything percolates from the top to down below. My firm belief is if in every national institution and every public authority or office of high significance you can assure men of absolute integrity then the rest will automatically follow.

... contd.