New Delhi: The Central government on Tuesday announced the new central vigilance commissioner (CVC) and central information commissioner (CIC) despite the Congress party objecting to both nominations. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-headed high-powered selection committees chose Sanjay Kothari as the new CVC and Bimal Julka as the next CIC. Adhir Ranjan Choudhary, the opposition member in the committees, strongly objected to both appointments.
Kothari is currently the secretary to the president of India and Julka is a serving information commissioner, Indian Express reported. The newspaper said the meeting was attended by Modi, home minister Amit Shah, minister of state for PMO and DoPT Jitendra Singh, Congress leader Choudhary, cabinet secretary Rajeev Gauba and DoPT secretary C. Chandramouli.
Choudhary said “papers provided by the PMO (for appointment of the CVC) disclose glaring and fatal infirmities with the (search) committee itself”, the newspaper reported. He also pointed out that the entire process had been questionable because one of the selection committee members – finance secretary Rajiv Kumar – “also turned out to be an applicant for the CVC and was finally shortlisted for the post of CVC by the search committee”.
The Telegraph reported that Kumar was 126 shortlisted candidates, and was finally dropped only because of stuff criticism from the opposition member. “The Prime Minister is under constitutional obligation to protect the integrity of governmental processes. What is being done is that the vigilance watchdog is being turned into a protective shield for the government. We saw the conduct of the CVC in Modi’s first term; the Prime Minister has demolished the institutional framework that is meant to fight corruption,” A Congress leader told the newspaper.
Choudhary wanted a fresh selection committee to be constituted and the current process to be nullified. “The entire purpose of constituting the search committee is vitiated considering that one of the members is himself an applicant and has been shortlisted and recommended for the post of CVC,” Chowdhury said in a note.
“Otherwise for this high-powered statutory committee to select the names from a pool that is itself a product of arbitrariness would be akin to being a party to the whole process,” he continued.
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Chowdhury also expressed displeasure with the way the CIC appointment was made. He said the government did not make details of the candidates available to the selection committee in advance. The process had been turned into “an empty paper formality”, he argued.
“In absence of the reasoned and informed decision of the search Committee shortlisting and recommending candidates for the CIC and IC, how can the high-powered statutory Committee be rendered a mere stamping tool for a decision perhaps already taken by the PM and the HM,” he asked, according to the Indian Express.
The newspaper asked him if he agreed with the appointments, and he said, “I did not have any other option…it is futile to argue because I had already lodged my dissent…Even the PM has acknowledged my contention. Thereafter, names were selected and I did not find any point in arguing. Because they are in majority…”
The CVC post has been vacant since June 2019 and the CIC post for a little more than one month.