While Indira Gandhi openly challenged the Constitution, Manmohan Singh, as Prime Minister, undermined constitutional bodies on the sly, for over a decade. His legacy remains a threat to this democratic republic
It now transpires that in order to retain the support of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and save his Government, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ensured the continuance of an additional judge of the Madras High Court although there were several charges of corruption against him. This explosive revelation has come from Justice Markandey Katju and has been corroborated by several others.
The facts are as follows: There was an additional judge of that court against whom there were allegations of corruption. The Intelligence Bureau probed the matter and confirmed the allegations. The collegium of the Supreme Court then decided against the judge’s continuance after his two-year tenure ended. The collegium’s opinion was communicated to the UPA Government around the time Mr Singh was to leave for New York.
However, the DMK learnt of the collegium’s decision and rushed its Ministers to the airport to warn Mr Singh that his Government would have fallen by the time he returned to India, if he did not intervene to save the judge’s job. They demanded that the Prime Minister intercede on the judge’s behalf and get the Supreme Court collegium to alter its opinion.
Mr Singh immediately asked his then Union Minister for law and Justice, Mr HR Bhardwaj, to approach the Chief Justice and to find a remedy. The Prime Minister’s Office also wrote to the law and Justice Ministry and sought clarifications as to why the judge’s services were not being continued. The Minister, in turn, sent a note from his office to the Chief Justice.
The Government was desperately pleading with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to somehow give the judge an extension as, otherwise, it would face a crisis. Eventually, the judge in question was given a one year extension. Thereafter, he was given yet another term as Additional Judge and then made a permanent judge of the High Court.
The story of this judge’s appointment and Mr Singh’s intervention on his behalf provides fresh proof of the extent of damage Mr Singh did to institutions during his prime ministership and the extent to which he went just to remain in office. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. He took several unconscionable decisions to save his prime ministership and to please his political bosses — Ms Sonia Gandhi and Mr Rahul Gandhi.
When Mr Singh became the Prime Minister in 2004, he was seen as a man of integrity and as an eminent economist. He managed to sustain this image for a couple of years, despite the fact that he had begun to weaken institutions, just to accommodate the whims of his political bosses, within a year of entering office.
The first indication of Mr Singh’s pliability and his contempt for norms and for the independence of constitutional offices became obvious when he appointed Mr Navin Chawla as an Election Commissioner in 2005. The Shah Commission of Inquiry, which probed Emergency excesses had declared Mr Chawla as a “tyrant” who was “authoritarian and callous” and “unfit for any public office”.
But none of this mattered for Mr Singh. The Nehru-Gandhi parivar wanted Mr Chawla appointed as Election Commissioner and Mr Singh readily obliged. He appointed a man who was declared a “tyrant” to a key position in a body that supervises and controls our electoral system!
Mr Singh’s decision to appoint Mr PJ Thomas as Central Vigilance Commissioner was even more shameful. A man facing a charge of corruption in a criminal case was appointed by the Prime Minister as the head of the main anti-corruption institution in the country. This was done ignoring the strong evidence against Mr Thomas. The CVC had to be chosen by a committee comprising the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the leader of the Opposition in the lok Sabha.
Mr Thomas, who was an accused in a corruption case pertaining to import of palmolein oil in Kerala, was one of the persons short-listed for the job. Obviously acting on the orders of Ms Gandhi, the Prime Minister teamed up with the Home Minister, brushed aside the objections of the leader of the Opposition and selected Mr Thomas. That Mr Singh failed to apply his mind became obvious when the Supreme Court threw Mr Thomas out of office and virtually indicted the Prime Minister for what he had done.
The court said it was the duty of the committee not to recommend a person “who can affect the institutional integrity of the CVC”. Did it need the Supreme Court to tell Mr Singh something so basic while appointing the CVCIJ Have you heard of another case of such gross irresponsibility by a Prime MinisterIJ
Mr Singh, as is well known, also did not let his conscience trouble him when he allowed Ottavio Quattrocchi to get away with the Bofors loot. The Central Bureau of Investigation obtained records which established that Quattrocchi, the friend of Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi, had been paid a commission totaling $7.3 million when India purchased field guns from Bofors for the Army.
This money was in Quattrocchi’s bank account in the UK and the Vajpayee Government had got the UK Government to freeze this account. Mr Singh asked the British authorities to de-freeze it. He also got the CBI to withdraw the case against this Italian businessman. Thereafter, there is sufficient evidence to show his complicity, both direct and indirect, in the 2G spectrum and coal block allocation scams.
Although he was the Prime Minister of the country, Mr Singh was often seen to be scraping and bowing before the Nehru-Gandhis, thereby, lowering the dignity of his office. The best example of this is the manner in which he withdrew an ordinance his Government had drafted to negate a Supreme Court judgement and provide relief to legislators convicted in criminal cases.
As the controversy over the ordinance raged in the country, Mr Gandhi appeared before the media, symbolically tore a copy of the ordinance, and described the Government’s move as “complete nonsense”. Mr Singh, who was in the US at that time, summoned his Cabinet and withdrew the ordinance, in order to comply with the whims of Mr Gandhi. Therefore, the latest revelations about him ensuring the continuance of a corrupt judge should come as no surprise.
If ever there was a law to punish a Prime Minister for deliberately weakening constitutional bodies and lowering their esteem in the eyes of the people, there would be a fit case to prosecute Mr Manmohan Singh. While Indira Gandhi openly and defiantly challenged the Constitution, Mr Singh wore a cunning mask that hid his intentions. That is why people like him pose a far greater threat to the survival of democracy and our political system than anyone else.