Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: March 4, 2011
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/321899/PM-owes-an-explanation.html
Why did he insist on a tainted babu as CVC?
With the Supreme Court striking down the appointment
of Mr PJ Thomas as the Central Vigilance Commissioner on account of criminal
charges pending against him, the UPA Government, more so the person who heads
it, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, stands exposed for trying to foist a tainted
bureaucrat on the agency which is supposed to fight corruption at high level.
There is no percentage in pretending, as the Prime Minister's publicists would
want, that Mr Thomas was appointed by a three-member committee and hence Mr
Singh owes neither responsibility nor accountability for the shameful choice.
The committee that 'selected' Mr Thomas comprises the Prime Minister, the
Home Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Ms Sushma
Swaraj had made her objection to shortlisting Mr Thomas for the job abundantly
clear; she recorded her dissent in writing. Hence, she cannot be faulted for
what was a patently flawed decision. As for the Home Minister, he could not
have disagreed with the Prime Minister who was personally keen that the job
should go to Mr Thomas - indeed, Mr Singh was insistent. Therefore, the political
responsibility for the huge embarrassment that has been caused to the Government
which has come out of this particular episode bruised and battered devolves
upon Mr Singh and nobody else. Mr Thomas has been evicted from the exalted
office he least deserved to hold; he should now stand trial for being allegedly
involved in the palmolein import scam which happened when he was Food Secretary
in the Government of Kerala. Further comment on a contemptible bureaucrat
known for consistently misusing his authority and denuded of all scruples
and lacking in sense of dignity is really not necessary. But it is necessary
to raise the larger question: Why did the Prime Minister opt for a bureaucrat
accused of corruption? This question can only be answered by Mr Singh and,
no matter how discomfiting it might be for him and his party, he must not
be allowed to get away with maintaining silence over an issue that has outraged
the entire nation and appalled even his colleagues in the Congress. Nor will
a statement proclaiming his ignorance of facts, and hence innocence, suffice.
The Department of Personnel and Training,
popularly known as DoPT, tracks the service record of every civil servant
and reports to the Prime Minister. It is inconceivable that the DoPT did not
mention the fact that Mr Thomas faces criminal charges in the palmolein import
scam while putting up the file containing the list of possible candidates
for the CVC's job to the Prime Minister. If, for any inexplicable reason,
the DoPT did not do so, it is for Mr Singh to explain why a department over
which he presides failed so abjectly in fulfilling its basic responsibility.
That apart, Mr Singh had the opportunity to amend his decision, which he had
already taken before the selection committee met, when Ms Swaraj raised the
issue of Mr Thomas's involvement in the palmolein import scam. Strangely,
or perhaps not so, Mr Singh elected to ignore her objection and persisted
with his decision. He must now tell the nation why he did so. Was it an error
of judgement? Or was it a judgement clouded by factors that raise serious
issues of probity and integrity in the highest office of the Government of
India?
