The Centre today strongly defended the appointment of controversial bureaucrat P J Thomas, facing a corruption case in a Kerala court, as Central Vigilance Commissioner, saying he was an "outstanding officer" with "impeccable integrity" in the affidavit filed before the Supreme Court.
I thought I knew the meaning of the word 'integrity'. To be on the safe side, I looked up the word in a Dictionary and it threw up 'adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty'.
Here is a guy, who threw all his priciples to winds and sided with the then Kerala Chief Minister K Karunakaran in 1990's and imported Palmolein at considerable loss to exchequer, and later sided with the Rs 1.76 lakh crore scamster Telecom Minister Raja, when Thomas was Telecom Secretary. He put hurdles after hurdles in the line of investigations into the biggest scam India has seen. Likewise the Palmolein scandal was the biggest scandal then that affected Kerala and rocked the whole State. And the Centre wants us to believe this guy is an 'outstanding officer' with 'impeccable integrity'.
If Thomas is the benchmark for efficiency and integrity for this disastrous government, I shudder to think the calibre of other top officials.
