Today is a historic day. Perhaps for the second time in history of Independent India supreme court has given a verdict of such immense importance. The first one would be Justice Sinha's (Allahabad High Court) verdict on June 12, 1975, declaring Indira Gandhi's election to the Lok Sabha as void.
Media Watch will be closely watching how media is reporting this historic event.
The first one which has caught Media Watch attention is a NDTV report Who is PJ Thomas?
At the onset, NDTV explains at length how the corruption charges against PJ Thomas is a very old one
Polayil Joseph Thomas, 60, has been in the eye of an unseemly storm for the last five months - a corruption case from years ago and an embarrassing question mark on his integrity came back to haunt him and the government that appointed him as the top man to look into corruption.
Does NDTV mean to say that seriousness of corruption charges decrease with time? It may be minor detail that P.J. Thomas is the eighth accused in the Rs 2.8-crore palmolein scam and has not been exonerated yet. In 2005, the then Congress government even moved the Supreme Court seeking that the palmolein case be withdrawn. Luckily, congress lost election and new Left government blocked the Congress government's move to get the case withdrawn. Now the trial is pending in the case as the SC ordered a stay on it based on Karunakaran's plea in 2007.
Also, Its intriguing NDTV missed any mention that PJ Thomas role at the DoT came under heavy criticism for a variety of reasons.
- One, he did not take any action against officials who allowed 85 firms to get licences even though they did not qualify (this was exposed by the CAG).
- Two, Thomas did not levy penalties on firms which did not fulfill their roll-out obligations, or recommend that their licences be cancelled — the CAG had to do this.
In fact, NDTV themselves in their report Is the new CVC against 2G scam probe? dated sept 08, 2001 had raised questions on integrity of CVC putting a question mark on whether the new CVC is in favour of probing the 2G scam. NDTV unearthed
In the note dated July 10, 2010, the Department of Telecom objects to the Comptroller and Auditor General or CAG's scrutiny of the 2G scam. PJ Thomas was the Telecom Secretary when this note was sent to the Law Ministry, seeking its opinion on the CAG's right to scrutinise the 2G spectrum allocation.
The Law Ministry replied to that note on August 13, 2010 saying the CAG or the CVC have no powers to challenge government policy.
In that note, the Law ministry clearly says the CVC can only probe corruption cases, not government policy.
Even SC questioned the tenability of P J Thomas supervising the Central Bureau of Investigation's probe into the 2G scandal. ASC observed
chargesheeted official doesn’t qualify as an outstanding civil servant.
Its shocking that inspite of all these grave charges, NDTV brushes off the the charges as “a corruption case from years ago”. Media watch would like to quote our esteemed PM on this
“Caesar's wife must be above suspicion ”
Then NDTV proceeds to imply that govt was caught unaware as CVC hid his assignment as Food and Civil Supplies Secretary or the palmolein case that happened during that time. NDTV reports
Curiously, his bio-data on the Central Vigilance Commission website lists all his assignments but not that as Food and Civil Supplies Secretary. The UPA government has said the bio-date that it saw while appointing Thomas did not mention this stint or the palmolein case that happened then.
The profile on the CVC website mentions Thomas' other assignments - that as Additional Chief Secretary (Higher Education), Chief Electoral Officer & Principal Secretary to Government, Director of Fisheries, Managing Director of the Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation Limited, Secretary, Taxes (Board of Revenue). Even District Collector, Ernakulam, Secretary, Kerala Khadi & Village Industries Board and Sub Collector, Fort, Cochin. One assignment listed merely states - Secretary, Government of Kerala.
Does NDTV want us to believe that GOI depends upon the biodata submitted by candidate for his service information especially when the candidate is being considered for a sensitive position like CVC? Wonder why NDTV missed to mention Home Minister P Chidambaram assertion that Selection Committee meeting to chose Central Vigilance Commissioner did discuss the issue of Palmolein case against P J Thomas. NDTV also missed to mention the dissent of Sushma Swaraj. In fact this was the first time in the last 15 years that government and the opposition differed in the choice of a CVC.
NDTV then finishes the report with some rave reviews
He also served as Telecom Secretary till he became CVC, and those who speak for him point to how much better the 3G spectrum auction was organised as compared to 2G.
The Supreme Court, which is also monitoring the CBI's investigation into the spectrum scam, suggested that it would be inappropriate for Mr Thomas to preside over an inquiry that could subject his own actions in the Telecom Ministry to scrutiny. Mr Thomas then recused himself from the 2G investigation.
One has to give it to audacity of NDTV in praising PJ Thomas especially on a day when SC has struck down his appointment as CVC.
The NDTV story is very biased, indeed.
ReplyDeleteSo is a report by ET http://bit.ly/dW6GeE which says-
'...60-year-old Thomas had the reputation of being an honest and non-controversial bureaucrat who rose to become the Chief Secretary of Kerala by dint of his sincerity and diligence.' and
'Thomas's civil service colleagues back home have repeatedly asserted that he was an officer of "impeccable integrity and honesty" and a "victim of political circumstances and deeply flawed and motivated investigative processes." '