Prithviraj Chavan’s chair has started to wobble following PM's statement on CVC and he has been caught lying
This is what the PM said in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday: "...Was I aware of the charge-sheet against Shri Thomas, the honest answer is that the notes which were prepared by the department and these notes are prepared under the guidance of the minister of state in charge of the DoPT (department of personnel and training), that note did not contain this information."
But Singh too should take a substantial part of the blame. Okay, Chavan cleared the name - with or without a motive - but why did the Prime Minister not apply his mind when the matter was raised by Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj at the committee that met to select a CVC? This is one question that the PM has not answered except saying it was an `error of judgement.'
Back to Chavan. With the opposition continuing to fire at him and an embarrassed Congress having nothing to defend, Chavan may find it difficult to continue as Maharashtra CM on three grounds:
It was Chavan who cleared the name of Thomas as he was the then minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and of personnel, directly responsible for recommending the officer who was an accused in a case. Why did he 'smuggle' (to borrow a word from BJP leader Arun Jaitley's comment in the Rajya Sabha) the name of Thomas?
CAUGHT LYING
Chavan has also been caught lying. After the PM blamed him for clearing the name of Thomas, the Maharashtra CM tried to pass the buck to the table of his Kerala counterpart V S Achuthanandan. He said since the Kerala government had cleared the name of Thomas for a central post, he 'assumed' that the officer had got the necessary vigilance clearance.
But a livid Achuthanandan hit back and refuted Chavan's claim saying he had written a letter to Chavan mentioning the charge-sheet against Thomas in a corruption case regarding import of palmolein in the 1990s.
"Chavan is parading naked lies. Kerala government had written to the centre that Thomas was an accused in the palmolein case. When the centre got a drubbing from the Supreme Court in the CVC appointment, the Congress tried to foist the responsibility of the bungle on Kerala," he said in Thiruvananthapuram.
This is what the official letter dated March 11, 2008, from Kerala Government said:
"P J Thomas, IAS, chief secretary, had applied for a central deputation in 1988, but was not selected for appointment. Subsequently, after 1992, he had expressed willingness...but was not considered because of a vigilance enquiry/case."
An annexure detailed the palm oil case and Kerala government's request for sanction for prosecution.
With the clarification coming from the Kerala CM, Chavan tried to fend off the controversy by saying "I did not blame the Kerala government. All I said was that the Kerala government had appointed Thomas as the chief secretary."
Another lie. Any officer shifting base to the centre should get a mandatory vigilance clearance - one from the state and the other from the DoPT.
As minister for science and technology, Chavan was also responsible for the S band scam. Either he was not aware of the secret contract between ISRO's commercial arm Antrix and a Bangalore-based company called Devas Multimedia Private Ltd., or he had an agenda.
This company got the scarce S-band spectrum for 20 years for a pittance. Chavan should have informed the PMO about the deal - which he obviously did not. The deal was hidden from the PMO for six long years until the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) smelt a rat and called for the files. The media then scooped it out into public space, forcing ISRO and the Prime Minister's Office scramble for an explanation.
The estimated loss, according to initial estimates, is a whopping Rs 2 lakh crore!!
UNDECLARED ASSET
Chavan is also in trouble for allegedly not declaring his Wadala flat details in his Rajya Sabha nomination papers.
Al this has given the Opposition enough ammunition to fire at Chavan. Under attack, he met Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday and tried to explain his role in the controversy.
Chavan said he will answer all the opposition criticism against him after he returns to Mumbai.
According to party sources, Chavan had a meeting with Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Gandhi, before he met her. He also met Mohan Prakash, the party in-charge of the state.
Meanwhile, Opposition parties, especially the Left parties, have sharpened their criticism of Chavan for his role in recommending Thomas as CVC, an appointment which was struck down by the Supreme Court last week.
Source: India Syndicate with inputs from IANS
