Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: February 3, 2011
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/315052/The-system-is-flawed.html
That's why tainted officers flourish
Now that his position as Chief Vigilance Commissioner
is threatened, Mr PJ Thomas has resorted to desperate measures to cling to
his post. For one, he has claimed at the Supreme Court hearing against his
appointment that all nine candidates (including him) who were shortlisted
by the Union Government in 2008 had complaints pending against them. While
what he has said may not be false - bureaucrats do face all sorts of allegations
in the course of discharging their duties and it is for the courts to decide
if Mr Thomas is a victim of such machination - it does not, in any manner,
justify his appointment. Moreover, it is one thing to have allegations flung
at you and quite another to be charge-sheeted and named an accused in a criminal
case that is being tried in court. Mr Thomas is still an accused in the palmolein
scam, especially since his 2008 clearance is also now under the scanner. How
could an accused in a criminal case have been given a clean chit for selection
as a Union Government officer? But this is not to ignore Mr Thomas' observation
about tainted candidates who were shortlisted. Indeed, in his desire to project
his innocence, Mr Thomas has exposed the dubiousness of the entire selection
process.
It is ironical that he should have hit out
at the system from which he has himself benefitted but perhaps the belligerence
is because he feels betrayed by the UPA regime that is now secretly hoping
he will just step down and save it from further shame. But Mr Thomas seems
to be in no hurry to oblige his now embarrassed sponsors. If what the CVC
has said is true, it cannot be entirely coincidental that all the nine officers
had complaints pending against them. Some of the instances that he has cited
in his affidavit before the apex court are indeed damning, and deserve a revisit,
because they are not cases of mere complaints but those where the CBI recommended
action against the empanelled official. If such names were cleared it is obviously
with the help of political patronage. The empanelment system must be fine-tuned
to ensure that tainted officers - and certainly those who are accused or named
in cases of impropriety - do not pass muster. On this issue, the UPA has a
lot of answering to do. The Government has bungled again in the selection
of the CVC. It brushed aside the reservations of senior BJP leader Sushma
Swaraj - who along with the Prime Minister and the Home Minister comprised
the selection panel - on Mr Thomas's suitability for the post. In fact, it
went a step further, with Mr P Chidambaram reportedly stating that Mr Thomas
had been cleared in the palmolein case. One can only assume two things from
this: Either the Government was not in possession of all the facts or that
it deliberately tried to bluff its way through.
