Sir — This refers to the country’s eminent legal luminary Fali S Nariman opting out of a search panel for the selection of the lokpal. He has alleged that the process the Government has adopted could not ensure that the best persons would be selected.
Earlier, leader of Opposition in the lok Sabha, Ms Sushma Swaraj, had objected to lawyer PP Rao’s name in the panel, which was unfortunately over-ruled by the other members including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the lok Sabha Speaker. As it is, the Government had hurriedly passed the lokpal Bill while the BJP could not ensure sufficient safeguards for the main Opposition to have sufficient say in the selection of the lokpal. The Union Government should also have taken lessons from an earlier incident when it had over-ruled objections of Ms Swaraj in the selection of Mr PJ Thomas as Chief Vigilance Commissioner. The appointment was subsequently set aside by the Supreme Court. A healthy democratic tradition requires that selection to such posts is done through consensus.