Govt trying to avoid humiliation: Ex-CVC Vittal

Reacting to media reports that the Centre had asked P J Thomas to quit as Central Vigilance Commissioner following the developments in the Supreme Court on Thursday, N Vittal, who held the CVC's post in the past, said that the government action was a crude attempt to bail out itself from a humiliating situation.

"I would not want Thomas to quit but wait for the court to pass orders in the case. This should not be construed as me trying to defend a corrupt officer. But Thomas must wait till the whole truth comes out," Vittal told rediff.com from his residence in Chennai on phone.

He congratulated Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj for forcing the hand of the government to act.

"If Swaraj files her affidavit before the court and exposes Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram, they would be stripped before the court," Vittal said.

He blamed politicians for subverting and undermining all constitutional bodies and institutions by luring those holding positions of power like CVC, Election Commission and the CAG.

"The man, who holds the post of CVC for a four year term, is permanently debarred from holding an office of profit after he retires. A similar ban should also

be imposed on others who hold key positions in constitutional bodies," he advocated.

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, one of the senior vice presidents of the Bhartiya Janata party, said that because the government did not want the truth to come out before the court, the home ministry was making desperate attempts to secure the resignation of Thomas.

"It is our fight against the government that it is trying to shield the corrupt. After Sushma declared that she would file an affidivit before the court to expose the government, Dr Singh has been trying to protect himself for appointing wrong man as CVC."

"The Vigilance commissioner is supposed to keep an eye on corrupt officials and weed them out. But if a corrupt man, who is facing charges of corruption, is appointed as CVC despite the Leader of Opposition putting on record her disagreement, then the government needs to be exposed and that is what Sushma is doing," Naqvi said.

On Thursday night, home ministry officials rushed to the CVC's residence to hand him over certain documents, but it is not yet known whether CVC Thomas did receive the documents or not.

Sources in the home ministry said that the documents were related to proceedings against Thomas in a trial court in Kerala and on the basis of these documents he was advised to resign than face impeachment proceedings.