Refusing to let Prime Minister Manmohan Singh off the hook over the appointment of P J Thomas as the central vigilance commissioner, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday asked Dr Singh if he would fix the responsibility for the error.
"Since the prime minister has very graciously accepted the error of judgment, would he now appreciate that responsibility and accountability co-exist? Does the prime minister now intend to fix accountability within the government of whoever was responsible for pushing a charge-sheeted person to this august institution," Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley asked the PM.
Jaitley told the Upper House of Parliament that "the institutional integrity of the CVC is of paramount importance".
"It is with this intention of maintaining this integrity and ensuring that such errors do not take place in the future that I am asking for certain clarifications," he said.
Jaitley continued his attack on Dr Singh, indicating that the Prime Minister's Office may have played a role in recommending Thomas's name for the post.
Bringing up the meeting of the panel for appointment of CVC on September 3, 2010, Jaitley asked whether the prime minister was aware that a charge-sheet was pending against the candidate that the government proposed to select.
Who had prepared the shortlist of the three candidates that included the charge-sheeted person for appointment to this august office, he asked.
"Was it done by the department of personnel or the PMO? Or did the DoPT prepare this list at the instance of the PMO," he said.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, who was present during the meeting, "brought this to the notice of the government that this official should be excluded because of a pending charge-sheet and any of the other two candidates could be appointed," pointed out Jaitley.
"Why did the government then insist on the appointment of P J Thomas," he queried.
