P.J.Thomas and Congress - A Storm Unforeseen

Now this is interesting and horrible at the same time. Interesting because it gives us a feeling – there is a child in everyone and horrible because it ensures that – finally the country is about to go to the dogs, if it hasn’t already. The abundant display of incompetence, callousness, support for corruption and last but not the least - intentional inaction against proven crooks by the current government has anything but dragged our great nation into the delusion of apathy and hypocrisy and made all of us a laughing stock worldwide. This is for sure one horrible thing; if not interesting.

Let’s not talk about CWG or 2G scams. The corruption was proved with unearthing the rascals involved in it. Irony is nothing has happened to the thugs till yet and nothing seems to happen either. So on this two issues; lets us citizens take a chill pill and let the buffoons go to their banks smiling all the way.

When the corruption has gone through the roofs of most government offices along with the parliament house, the least the government could have done is to appoint a decent and honest CVC (Chief Vigilance Commissioner) so that the malice could have been dealt with iron fist. But for some strange reasons rational and honest approach and Congress doesn’t go in tandem. Out of nowhere they thought to appoint a corrupt and dishonest officer in the form of P.J.Thomas. The chap in discussion is alleged to have made his hand dirty with corruption when he was the Telecom secretary during the period when the phenomenon called 2G spectrum scam happened. If this is not enough then the Kerala government is running all over the place to sought permission to prosecute the same person in connection with a multi crore Pamoline Oil import scam. Now isn’t it funny? The guy who is supposed to be the custodian of all anti-corruption activities in the country and expected to act as a master watch dog so that all the corrupts would wet their pants by just thinking about him is neck deep buried in corruption himself? Isn’t the appointment of such tainted character to this important position raises few eyebrows? Aren’t we citizen stands a right to know – how come such incompetent and corrupt individuals are selected to important positions to begin with and what is the procedure for selecting such high profile positions?

I am told; selection of such important positions is a tricky business. To select a chap like P.J.Thomas to fill in the post there should be a team even comprising of a representative member of the opposition to go through the shortlisted candidates and zero in unanimously on one guy to whom the responsibility to be bestowed. Finally the Prime-Minister of India should authorize the selection and as usual our President should give the oath of honesty to the chap on appointment date. If BJP are to be believed then - they never gave consent for the selection of Mr.Thomas for this position looking at his muddy background. Their relentless opposition didn’t work as the other two representatives of the ruling party hoodwinked them and went ahead with their selection. This is bizarre. If there is any truth in the words of BJP then the politics behind such high profile appointments is quite evident and doesn’t serve much confidence to us citizens on our democratic procedure. No wonder the appointment of Mr.Thomas as CVC was pictured as yet another example of mis-governance and deliberate attempt to shield the thugs of the 2G scam. As expected media sprung into action with credentials of Mr.Thomas in terms of integrity and honesty was questioned on prime time.

Now keeping aside all the allegations and counter allegations – isn’t there something fundamentally wrong? How come a person can guarantee an honest enquiry into things where he himself is a party to it? For sure we are no more in the land of Gandhis where if one finds himself in compromising state would step down and question himself, rather being an insult to his position. The CVC whose responsibility is to choose the CBI director is himself gullible enough to be prosecuted and questioned by the CBI itself. Things can’t be more bizarre than this. The relentless howling of the media did prompt our Apex court to take note of things and subsequently the Govt. is ordered to make its stand clear on Thomas and the whole drama of his appointment.

I guess our Attorney general Mr.Vahanbati is a joker of highest caliber. Before Thomas our Apex court must investigate the trick behind this man’s appointment. There is something fishy here for sure. Schoolboys are expected to fumble when confronted and end up giving funny excuses but not our Attorney general. First he shouted from the roof top and assured the court on the peak level of integrity those Mr.Thomas posses and confirmed that his appointment has no corroboration with politics or politicians. According to him, the first and last alive person in this country who is capable enough for this post has to be Mr.Thomas. No sooner Mr.Vahanbati could take his first full breath in half an hour from nowhere the honorable High court of Kerala gave their consent and allowed the state government to go ahead with the investigation of the Pamoline Oil import scam architected by Mr.Thomas. Little did Mr.Vahanbati know that it is not Congress which is ruling in every state of India.

Now comes the joke of the millennium. According to facts furnished by Govt. to Apex court – Our Prime-Minister was never aware of the tainted past of Mr.Thomas before he signed his appointment letter. Funny isn’t it? This is unbelievable to start with and if they are facts after all then it is unacceptable. Even when we appoint our house maid we are ordered by our police department to make sure we are aware of the maid’s past. In any Public/Private job the applicant is verified thoroughly by the employer before handing over the appointment letter. In the same line how in earth the chaps at the helm of affairs like our Prime-Minister forget to do background verification before appointing him for such important position? Or is it yet another case of fringing ignorance and get your ass off from a situation which has gone horribly wrong and no credible way out in sight? I am told Mr.Vahanbati just suffered a mild 3^rd level heart attack. Poor Thomas who might have dreamt a lot about siphoning a huge amount of money post his appointment, now finds himself at sea with none supporting his cause and his mentors are nowhere to be seen and have promptly washed off their hands from him.

Good or bad I don’t know but for sure the ruling government is insulting the common citizens on daily basis by their much unwanted gimmicks. More frustrating is their belief that they can absolutely commit any crime and still get away with it. Appointed a grossly corrupt entity at the top of the anti-corruption department and feel they can still remain untouched by displaying their innocence and ignorance of the past of the man they appointed. Irony is – perhaps they will get away with yet another mis-governance and their overtly mollified intentions. An humble request to our clean Prime-Minister. Can our government for once show some courage and stand up and admit – the whole idea of appointing Mr.Thomas was to weaken the 2G scam and CWG investigation and safeguard the scoundrels involved in it. Can Rahul Baba stand up and admit this fact and beg apology from the very common man he is seen vouching so much on each alternate day? Guess he won’t. Incredible India; Indeed!!