New Delhi:
The BJP has taken its battle against the new Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) to President Pratibha Patil. Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj met the President on Tuesday evening and explained why BJP boycotted the ceremony, setting the stage for a confrontation with the UPA government.
That on a day PJ Thomas took oath as the Central Vigilance Commissioner. The BJP boycotted the event after protesting against the appointment, even writing to the prime minister against it. Mr Thomas was named in a farm oil duty case in Kerala some years back. Although he was exonerated, the BJP says the CVC should be entirely be non-corrupt.
Thomas, the Telecom Secretary till now, was administered the oath of office by President Pratibha Patil at Rashtrapati Bhavan here.
The brief function was attended by Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Law Minister M Veerappa Moily, Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar and Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah among others.
Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj, however, boycotted the function as BJP is opposed to the appointment of the 1973-batch Kerala cadre officer to the top post of the anti-corruption watchdog in view of allegations against him in palm oil import scam during his earlier tenures in Kerala.
"It was a conscious decision not to go (to the function) to protest the manner in which P J Thomas was appointed over-ruling the very legitimate concerns expressed by BJP about him," BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told PTI.
Swaraj, who was a part of the three-member Committee that selected Thomas for the CVC Chief's post, had registered her dissent over his appointment.
This was ignored by the Committee headed by the Prime Minister and also included the Home Minister.
BJP has alleged that the government wanted to appoint Thomas as the CVC head to "cover-up" the alleged scam in allocation of 2G spectrum in which accusations have been levelled against Telecom Minister A Raja.
The Prime Minister yesterday defended the appointment of Thomas, saying "We have done the right thing. We have chosen the best candidate out of the list of three."
Thomas succeeded Pratyush Sinha, a 1969 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre, who demitted office yesterday after a four-year tenure as CVC. (With PTI inputs)