Imagine a cricket team where every member is designated a captain. It is not hard to figure out the result. Or imagine a mountaineering team in which every member has the right to decide to stop or begin a climb.

       These examples are useful to understand how the relations among India’s national investigation teams have shaped up in recent years. Of the 15-odd national investigation agencies at the Centre, there has been a rank creep. The heads of most of them hold the same rank, that of special secretary to the Government of India. In this context, the Centre’s November 15 ...