The Hindu : Govt. denies stalling Tehelka probe

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 26, 2002

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Govt. denies stalling Tehelka probe

By K.V. Prasad

NEW DELHI NOV. 25. The Central Government today denied there was any attempt on its part to "sabotage" the work of the Commission inquiring into the Tehelka episode and asserted it was committed to allowing the panel complete its task.

Dissatisfied with the assurance, the Opposition led by Manmohan Singh staged a walkout charging the Government with adopting "dilatory tactics" to stall the probe and demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into it.

For the second consecutive day, the Rajya Sabha witnessed tumultuous scenes over the issue, with the Opposition members asserting that they did not cast any aspersion on Justice K. Venkataswami, retired Supreme Court judge, or on the judiciary but were concerned with the Government's conduct in appointing a judge to a Government job when he was heading a probe into the functioning of a Ministry. "It is not a reflection on a judge but government functioning," the Congress leader, Pranab Mukherjee, said.

Responding to members' concern, the Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, said the Government "shall not permit any attempt to sabotage, dilute or sidetrack" the probe and was committed to seeing that the Commission came out with its final findings at the earliest.

He said having accepted the resignation of Mr. Venkataswami as head of the panel, the Government would consult the Chief Justice of India for filling the vacancy by nominating a retired judge of the apex court. Mr. Singh said he would convey to the Prime Minister a suggestion by the RJD president, Laloo Prasad Yadav, that the panel's new chief be appointed in consultation with the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sonia Gandhi. He also read out the resignation letter written by Mr. Venkataswami, which was objected to by Hansraj Bharadwaj (Congress) and Janeswar Misra (SP), on the ground that it was improper to make such letters public.

Nilotpal Basu of the CPI(M) said while Mr. Venkataswami had shown "high moral level" by putting in his papers, the executive which took the decision to appoint him should also resign. The RJD chief was shrill in attacking the Defence Minister, George Fernandes, and demanded that he be imprisoned.

The former Law Minister, Arun Jaitley, argued that the Government followed a convention in appointing Mr. Venkataswami on the recommendation of the CJI. He wondered why the Opposition did not object earlier when he was appointed last year, since he was then Chairman of the Chennai-based Railway Rates Tribunal.

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