Are you wondering, why the hell I am thanking this guy, instead of admonishing him for refusing to resign? In a way, Thomas achieved much more for the nation in terms of tackling corruption, establishing precedent etc., than what he would have if he had resigned at the first allegation and the case had been not taken up by the SC.
Supreme Court in an extremely intelligent judgment, which is very easy enough for lay man like me to read and interpret, has called a spade - a spade.
1. Just going through the procedural requirements alone are not enough, the fundamental premise of “Institutional Integrity” which de facto stands compromised if you pick a person of doubtful “Individual Integrity”.
2. It also recognized that sometimes a “brutal majority” is essential and ruled that no dissenting member of the committee that elects CVCs has “Veto” power
3. The most joyous of all -- it explicitly called out that CVCs post calls for adjudicative capabilities when pursuing issues of corruption and hence it can’t be restricted to IAS cadre alone.
4. It admonished the Committee for not worrying about the integrity and called out that the blame squarely lies with it -- our Ceremonial PM and “Pseudo-intellectual” HM.
5. Last, it demolished two arguments…
a. The SC has no powers of intervention, with a clarification -- when an act is not valid in law, it has the absolute power to intervene
b. The crucial corruption data on Thomas was not available to us (though it was for the rest of the world to see) defense from Manmohan and particularly Chidambaram has been laid to rest.
To me more than anything, the last point of judgment augurs well for institutions headed by Mr. Prashant Bhushan who spear headed the effort and through various spin-doctors (the Sibal, Singhvi, Tiwari kind) and media allies (the NDTV brigade) kept a laser like focus on the real issue and brought about this monumental occasion for the nation. The young of today, may not realize what a joyous occasion it is now, but history will be very kind to this day in the future.
IMO, Prashant Bhushan clearly deserves a “Bharat Ratna” in the special category of fighting corruption.
Perhaps, a Padmashri for PJ Thomas, but for whose stubborn headedness none of this would have been possible.
A very scary thought indeed…. :-)
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