Author: Rajeev Deshpande/New Delhi
Publication: Pioneer
Date: April 2, 2001
Was dabbling in the affairs of some
"cultural organisations" all that suspended Ministry of Home Affairs official
Thomas Mathew did while sitting in his North Block office?
In a discussion which took place
in North Block, Thomas Mathew and Tehelka.com correspondent Samuel Mathew
discussed Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat's forthcoming book "Betrayal of the Defence
Forces". Needless to state, the book was expected to be extremely critical
of the then Union defence minister George Fernandes.
The subject warmed the hearts of
the two men. This was early in the New Year, quite some time before the
book came to be talked about in the media. Samuel Mathew boasted that his
connections with Sonia Gandhi's private secretary V George would ensure
that the Congress president graced the book release function.
A few days later, again in Thomas
Mathew's North Block office, Samuel Mathew reported that his "feedback"
was that the Congress president would be reluctant to appear at such a
function. At this Thomas Mathew said he would use his contacts with former
Prime Minister V P Singh and persuade the latter to release the controversial
book.
How was Thomas Mathew able to do
all this? It was because the official is understood to have been in touch
with Admiral Bhagwat as well as Rear Admiral Suhas V Purohit. This fitted
in well with his venomous attitude towards former Union defence minister
George Fernandes.
But, Thomas Mathew now chooses to
plead with President K R Narayanan that there was "no grain of truth in
the allegation that he was part of a conspiracy against the Government".
Apart from his association with
the Tehelka.com correspondent, with whom he was on extremely pally terms,
Thomas Mathew did more than just hang around on the fringes of Left-wing
politics. In fact, some of his associations were way outside the pale of
the mainstream Left.
Late last year, a naxal activist
Y Naveen Babu was gunned down in Andhra Pradesh. Thomas Mathew attended
a condolence meeting held at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). He returned
from the meeting and told his "audience" at his North Block office that
the death would be "avenged" soon.
It could be just a coincidence that
a senior Andhra leader K Madhav Reddy was gunned down soon thereafter.
Finally, the official claims that
"since his switch" to the MHA, he has not been in contact with any railway
person. The suggestion was that Harichandra Prasad, the railway contractor
who blew the whistle on him, was being less than truthful.
Apart from the fact that Prasad
can recall all details of Thomas Mathew's North Block office, down to the
crockery and his staff, there are the original MHA reception passes which
clearly show the dates on which Prasad visited the officer. And, the office
is clearly legible -- 94-B 1. Interestingly, Thomas Mathew's memory is
returning to him on other counts. It took a couple of days for him to recover
some vital bytes of his memory.
While deriding the ministry's efforts
to "fix" in the Tehelka.com case, Mathew told a daily newspaper that "I
am not aware of any reporter called Samuel Mathew. The Tehelka.com reporter
is actually Mathew Samuel and it is obvious that an attempt is being made
to that the two are related by a common surname." That was in the edition
dated March 28.
But, two days later, Thomas Mathew
begins to remember details that had slipped his mind earlier. He tells
the same newspaper that not only did he know Tehelka.com correspondent
Samuel Mathew, he had also met the other "co-author" of the expose, Anirudh
Bahal.
Admitting that he met Samuel Mathew
and Bahal a "few times", Thomas Mathew says that he had helped the latter
get his passport. The official maintains that there was no wrongdoing that
he was guilty of and that he had never held any responsibilities for the
north-east.
Thomas Mathew would have everyone
believe that his "life and liberty" were at peril. He has made out that
he was being victimised for innocuous links with some cultural organisations.
Was all that Thomas Mathew indulged in merely some technical violation
of service regulations? Thomas Mathew did not seem to be overly concerned
with rules and regulations. He once told a visitor that the word "socialsim"
in the preamble to the Constitution provided sufficient leeway for him
to act as wished. Usually, against the interests of the Vajpayee Government.
