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Khanduism 27 |
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| Your slip is
showing, Mr. Prime Minister |
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What happens if
a similar slip or 'error of judgement' results in an ISI mole
being appointed as India's Commander-in-Chief? |
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| “The Prime Minister
must resign”, said Khandu in his booming voice and with a cold
finality that was rather scary. |
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| I was very
uncomfortable because if Khandu was, indeed, articulating the
hoi polloi, it spelt trouble for the country. At the very least,
it meant an inner power struggle within the Congress party with
orchestrated demands for Sonia Gandhi or Rahul to take over the
reins of power directly. At the far end, it could also mean
fresh elections to parliament, if not immediately, at least over
the next few months, depending on the results of the forthcoming
state assembly elections in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu,
Kerala and Pondicherry. |
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| “Why do you want
him to resign? By all accounts he is a very sincere and honest
Prime Minister.” |
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| “That is what the
Prime Minister and the government have been saying about the
Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) P J Thomas as well. But the
Supreme Court has rightly rejected that contention and has set
aside the appointment. It is the institutional integrity that
matters and not the personal integrity of the individual
concerned.” |
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| I almost
burst out laughing. Khandu was only repeating what the Chief
Justice of India, S H Kapadia, had said in the famous judgement
on the appointment of P J Thomas as Central Vigilance
Commissioner, disregarding the fact that he had been charge
sheeted in a corruption case. But such high logic, coming from
Khandu, did sound a little comic to me. What did he possibly
understand about terms like institutional integrity and personal
integrity? But I restrained myself and continued the argument. |
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|
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| “Oh! I thought you
were talking about the 2G scam or the CWG scam. This CVC
appointment is a small thing and courts do keep routinely
setting aside such orders passed by governments. This is nothing
big.” |
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| “It is these small
compromises which lead to big disasters. And, pardon me, sir,
appointment of CVC is not a small thing. He selects the CBI
Director and the Enforcement Director and supervises the entire
anti-corruption set-up in the country. If you have a man of your
choice posted as CVC, you can influence the outcome of every
corruption case in the country. And if the person concerned is
himself facing charges, he will always be vulnerable to the
pressures from persons who have put him in that position.” |
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| I was beginning to
see Khandu's logic. He was even going beyond what had been
stated in the Supreme Court judgement. What I was not prepared
to believe was that there could be such sinister designs behind
such appointments. So I pressed on. |
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| “But why would the
government be interested in diluting the anti-corruption
measures through appointment of a weak, pliant, or tainted, as
you say, CVC?” |
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| Khandu was silent
for a long while. After sometime, I got a little restless and
turned in my seat. I got the feeling that Khandu was not
considering my question worth a reply and had decided to dismiss
it with contempt. I could almost hear him laugh silently at my
response just as I had almost burst with laughter a minute ago
at his exposition of institutional integrity. I prodded him on: |
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| “It was just a
mistake, a slip-up somewhere, an oversight, may be. Why would
the government ……?” |
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| “It is much worse
if it was, indeed, a slip-up, though it was'nt.” |
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| “But with a Prime
Minister so honest …….” |
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| He did not let me
complete my sentence. |
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| “The Prime Minister
is not a person and it is not the Prime Minister's government.
Institutionally, it is a party government and no matter how
honest the Prime Minister, it is the institutional honesty and
integrity that counts.” |
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| I could see that
the Supreme Court had injected a new phrase into the public
discourse of the country. I was reminded of Mark Antony thinking
aloud after his rabble-rousing speech in Shakespeare's 'Julius
Caesar', “Mischief, thou art afoot; take thou what course thou
wilt.” · |
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