Follow Zero-tolerance on Corruption & punish the corrupt

Posted: 11 Mar 2011 11:29 PM PST
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March 12, 2011

This is no clarification.The PJ Thomas story is not over yet
The PJ Thomas episode cannot be laid to rest as yet because more questions have been raised than answered in the course of recent ‘clarifications’ given by various Government functionaries and Congress worthies, including the Prime Minister, Mr Manmohan Singh. Since the issue deals fundamentally with the process of appointment of the head of the organisation that checks corruption in high places, there must be clarity on not just what went wrong but also who catalysed that wrong. Mr Singh said in Parliament that he is willing to accept responsibility for the fiasco. But is he really? He has slyly sought to pass the buck to the then Minister of State in the PMO and now Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan for not keeping him informed about Mr Thomas’s blotted service record. On his part, Mr Chavan has passed the buck to — of all the people — Kerala’s Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan, who ironically has been seeking Mr Thomas’s prosecution! It is ridiculous to suggest that the Kerala Government is accountable for the misdeed of the Union Government under the Congress-led UPA’s tutelage. The Prime Minister, his Minister of State and the Central Vigilance Commission are culpable for the faulty and deplorable decision — Mr Singh is to blame more than anybody else. That’s why an unambiguous apology from Mr Singh and an assurance that such an ‘error of judgement’ would not be repeated would have helped bring the controversy to a closure. But Mr Singh chose otherwise. Is it because he knows something that the nation too should know but has been kept in the dark? Has this got to do with the patronage that Mr Thomas has received all through his career of important individuals in the Congress — people the Prime Minister dare not implicate even by imputation? Because none of the explanations that has been offered so far is really convincing. In any case, the Prime Minister cannot get away with his unconvincing ‘clarification’ because he is yet to tell the nation as to why he insisted on Mr Thomas’s appointment as Central Vigilance Commissioner despite being told by Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj about the criminal charges pending against him in the infamous palmolein import scandal.

It is obvious that the Prime Minister and his party are desperate to keep the reasons behind the decision to appoint Mr Thomas as the CVC under wraps and not come clean. Mr Achuthanandan has done well to call the Government’s bluff and go public with details about how his efforts to bring Mr Thomas to book have been stymied by the Department of Personnel and Training which reports to the Prime Minister. The Opposition should persist with its demand for the Government to tell all; the question of letting Mr Singh get away with a statement that says nothing does not arise. The lead has to be taken by the main Opposition party, the BJP. Mr Nitin Gadkari, as BJP president, has done the right thing by signalling that his party will continue to raise uncomfortable questions about la affaire PJ Thomas till the full truth comes out in the public domain. Not to do so would be tantamount to becoming a party to the cover-up that has been launched in the wake of the Supreme Court’s judgement which has left the Prime Minister with egg on his face.

Courtsey: The Daily Pioneer (http://www.dailypioneer.com/323815/This-is-no-clarification.html)