Senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury on Friday said the latest revelations had given the lie to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's assertion of being kept in the dark by the Kerala government regarding a vigilance case against P.J. Thomas, whose appointment as Central Vigilance Commissioner was recently nullified by the Supreme Court.
“The Prime Minister made a statement in the Rajya Sabha that since the Kerala government had made Mr. Thomas the Chief Secretary he presumed that vigilance clearance was there. Facts have now come out. The Kerala government had in the early part of 2008 written to the Department of Personnel and Training [DoPT] saying that it was not willing to consider the deputation of Mr. Thomas to the Central government because of a pending vigilance case.
“So it is absolutely incorrect to say that the Kerala government had not informed the Centre about it,” Mr. Yechury told journalists.
He also sought to know how the government's intelligence apparatus had no information on this.
“DoPT does not know about the background of its own officers. It is a very sorry state of affairs,” he said.
Mr. Yechury termed as “unfortunate” the damage and destruction caused during a march called by pro-Telangana groups and supported by some political parties in Hyderabad on Thursday.
“It is very unfortunate that such vandalism occurred. These statues are part of Telangana and Andhra culture and a part of the Vishal Andhra movement, which includes all Telugu-speaking people,” said Mr. Yechury.
The protesters on Thursday broke police barriers and damaged statues and threw parts of them into the Hussain Sagar Lake.
