Manmohan blames Prithviraj Chavan

Not aware of any case against Thomas till Sushma Swaraj raised it at meeting

March 08, 2011 06:24 pm | Updated November 17, 2021 03:57 am IST - New Delhi

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that he was not aware of a charge sheet against P. J. Thomas till the meeting of selection committee on September 3, 2010. File photo

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that he was not aware of a charge sheet against P. J. Thomas till the meeting of selection committee on September 3, 2010. File photo

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday blamed his then junior Minister and present Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan for omitting to mention the charge-sheeting of P.J. Thomas in the file put up to the three-member panel, headed by Dr. Singh himself, to consider the official's suitability for the post of Central Vigilance Commissioner.

The Prime Minister also admitted to a lapse of judgment on his part. “Until I went to the meeting, I was not aware that there was any such case, that too involving corruption till Leader of the Opposition [Lok Sabha] Sushma Swaraj raised it at the selection meeting.”

Dr. Singh told the Rajya Sabha that he approved the appointment because he felt the official must have been cleared of the charges as he had then taken up two senior-level appointments — Chief Secretary of Kerala and Union Telecom Secretary.

Faced with a sustained grilling by Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and others over why action was not taken against the persons who did not mention Mr. Thomas' involvement in a graft case, the Prime Minister took responsibility for the lapse.

Pointing out that the files for such selections were prepared under the guidance of Minister of State in charge of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Dr. Singh said: “The honest answer is that the note which was prepared by the DoPT...did not contain this information about charge sheet.”

“Since the gentleman was appointed Chief Secretary, Government of Kerala, and that he was appointed as Secretary to two departments of the Government of India, I thought vigilance matters must have been looked into and therefore we went ahead with the selection process.”

Left members were not satisfied with the reply and staged a walkout.

Others who sought clarifications were senior CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury and D. Raja (CPI).

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.