Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: December 2, 2010
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/300609/Shame-on-the-UPA!.html
Government stands by tainted Thomas
It is truly shameful that the UPA Government
should be so desperate to retain a tainted bureaucrat who did not lift his
little finger in protest while Mr A Raja plotted and schemed to sell precious
2G Spectrum to fly-by-night operators at a throwaway price thus causing the
exchequer a whopping loss of at least Rs1.76 lakh crore, leave alone try and
stop the loot as any officer with integrity would have done, as the Central
Vigilance Commissioner. The issue pertaining to Mr PJ Thomas's appointment
as Central Vigilance Commissioner and his continuing in office is no longer
a partisan dispute in which the Opposition and the Government are locked;
it has fetched stinging rebuke and worse from the Supreme Court which has
not only raised serious questions about the credentials of Mr Thomas but also
cast aspersions on the Government's integrity for choosing him for this sensitive
post. It's not only about a criminal case that is pending against Mr Thomas
who was accused of being involved in the infamous palm oil import scandal,
but the manner in which he conducted himself as Telecom Secretary at the time
of the 2G Spectrum scam. He not only played along with the then Telecom Minister,
Mr Raja, but sought to block an inquiry by the Central Vigilance Commission,
the organisation he now heads. All these facts were pointed out by the Leader
of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Ms Sushma Swaraj, who refused to endorse the
choice of the other two members of the committee which selects an officer
from a panel of candidates for the CVC's job. That Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh and Union Minister for Home Affairs P Chidambaram, as the other two
members of the committee, should have brushed aside Ms Swaraj's objections
and opted for the least suitable person tells its own story. There is no percentage
in the Congress insisting that the Prime Minister's integrity is beyond reproach
or Mr Manmohan Singh's publicists in the media projecting him as a knight
in shining armour riding a white steed. For all his claimed probity and honesty,
Mr Singh owes an explanation to the nation as to why he backed Mr Thomas,
just as an explanation is due for the strange silence he maintained while
his Cabinet colleague, Mr Raja, cheated the nation with stunning impunity.
That said, the only honourable exit left for
the Government is to ask its favourite bureaucrat-turned-CVC to put in his
papers. Anything less than this would only serve to confirm whispered motives
behind the Government's choice, especially the Prime Minister's role in the
selection process. Yet, instead of electing to do the morally right thing
and salvaging whatever is left of the dignity of the Prime Minister, the UPA
Government has chosen to stand by a discredited individual with a tarnished
service record. It would have been laughable had the issue not been of such
grave importance that the Government should suggest Mr Thomas will not supervise
the inquiry into the 2G Spectrum scam. That's not only absurd but downright
disingenuous. The institution he heads has the responsibility of maintaining
vigilance across the board, of ensuring the CBI does its job without cutting
corners, and preventing corruption at high places. How can Mr Thomas possibly
head such an institution?
