New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushma Swaraj Monday said she was put under ‘pressure’ to agree with the candidate choice for Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) finalised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P. Chidambaram.
Swaraj, speaking to reporters here, said the government chose Telecom Secretary P.J. Thomas as the next CVC despite her disagreement.
‘I had my reservations about P.J. Thomas, so I said choose from the other two on the panel as the CVC should be someone with an unblemished background, which they disagreed to do.
‘Then I said defer the meeting because there are more deserving candidates out there. But despite having three more days into the swearing in, I was told I had to decide then and there. Basically I had no choice but to disagree,’ the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha told reporters.
Swaraj said she argued that Thomas was investigated on charges of corruption in the Kerala palm oil import scam and is, therefore, not fit to oversee the investigation into the 2G allocation, but Chidambaram pointed out that the bureaucrat had been cleared of all the charges.
‘The panel presented to me was a one-man panel, so there was no consultation. How could I choose… I told them that they were not sitting in the meeting with an open mind,’ she added.
The others candidates were Secretary to the Department of Chemicals and Fertilizer Bijoy Chatterjee and Former fertiliser Secretary S. Krishnan.
