People's Democracy

EDITORIAL

 Vajpayee Govt Scuttles Tehelka Probe

THE controversy centering around Justice Venkatswami's resignation from heading the probe into the serious charges of corruption and risks to national security exposed by the portal tehelka.com clearly reveals the Vajpayee government's unseemly conduct in  scuttling the enquiry.

 It is, indeed, unheard of,  that a government appoints a person who is already probing that very government's conduct as the chairman of an authority under the finance ministry.  Even if the Chief Justice were to have forwarded this name, any government, having some pretense of righteousness,  would never have taken such a decision. That this government chose to do so clearly shows its  intention of seeking to sabotage the probe, particularly at a time when Justice Venkatswami has stated that  the Commission was about to wind up and present its report. Clearly, the government is apprehensive about the contents of the report, hence, the recourse to such subterfuge. 

Right from the beginning, having been caught red-handed accepting bribes with impunity, in defence deals jeopardising national security as well, the Vajpayee government  spared no efforts to protect the guilty.  For over one and a half years, tehelka.com has been hounded and crippled.  The terms of reference for the enquiry commission itself were motivated by adding a clause to probe the portal's motivations  rather than the exposure of sleaze.  At that moment itself, a reputed constitutional expert had warned, "Never in the half century of the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952 was the body ever asked to probe into the credentials of those who had made the charges.  The focus was on the message, never the messenger. If this move is allowed to pass muster, the press will be effectively muzzled.  Any time it publishes an expose,  the government will retaliate by setting up inquiries not only into the truth of the charges, but also into the motives, finances and sources of the journal which published them….It is not only invidious to single out the press for discriminatory treatment, it is also unconstitutional to do so". 

 Unfortunately, he has been vindicated.

Such fascistic subterfuge  cannot be allowed to  succeed.  Since Justice Venkatswami has resigned, there is no other course to punish the guilty and safeguard national security except to set-up a Joint  Parliamentary Committee to probe into these serious exposures. 

In the meanwhile, it is necessary that the country and the Parliament must take stock of the fourteen defence deals that have surfaced in the tehelka exposure and set-up mechanisms to prevent any future repetition.  This, however, may require a new government since Vajpayee & Co.  show scant respect for the  CAG report which indicted defence purchases strengthening tehelka's allegations and have put a lid on the CVC report on defence purchases in the name of "national security".