Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari.
ARGUING THAT the process adopted for appointment of the next Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) was “illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional”, the Congress on Wednesday demanded that the selection be scrapped and the process be started afresh. The party said Sanjay Kothari, whose name was finalised for CVC at a meeting of the high-powered committee headed by the Prime Minister on Tuesday, was not even an applicant and his name was not placed before the committee.
The party said the “matter was so sensitive and serious” that the process of selection can be challenged in a court. “All options are open,” Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said.
A day after the committee cleared the name of Kothari, who is now Secretary to the President, despite objections from Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Opposition member in the committee, the Congress argued that the selection process was also “vitiated” because of the fact that Finance Secretary Rajeev Kumar was a member of the search committee and an applicant for the CVC’s post as well. The party said Kumar’s name was among the three names short-listed by the search committee and placed before the high-powered committee.
“The search committee consisted of Cabinet Secretary Rajeev Gauba, DoPT Secretary C Chandramouli and Finance Secretary Rajeev Kumar…The panel which was sent to the high-powered committee consisted of Ajay Narayan Jha, member of the 15th Finance Commission, Kumar and Bhanu Pratap Sharma, former secretary of the DoPT…The Finance Secretary was a member of the search committee and was an applicant for the post of CVC and the search committee then recommends one of the members of the search committee to be appointed as the CVC… this is completely unheard off, this is bizarre,” Tewari told reporters.
He claimed that the Prime Minister agreed that the process was “vitiated” when Kumar’s case was pointed out by Chowdhury at the meeting on Tuesday. “So what does the government do. The Prime Minister pulls out a name from his pocket … and diluting all rules and procedures, issues a Tuglaqi farmaan (diktat) that Kothari will be the next CVC. He was not even an applicant. There were 126 applicants for both the posts of CVC and VC…. A man who is neither an applicant, whose candidature was not considered by the search committee… who is not in the shortlist is then cleared for appointment as the next CVC.”
“The person who has been given the responsibility of preventing corruption in the country… the process of his appointment itself is illegal and unconstitutional. In this country, you cannot even appoint a peon the way the Prime Minister and the Home Minister have appointed the CVC… bas jeb se naam nikala aur CVC. Are we living in a democracy or in a banana republic…. he said.