SURVIVAL BY BLACKMAIL OR THE ART OF GOVERNANCE?
An anecdote goes like this: a benign king decided to teach
his subjects the value of co operation. He invited them all for a lunch and had
them seated in two rows facing each other. He did one more thing before serving
the food, he tied stilts to their arms so that they could not bend them. And when
the food was served the people obviously could not eat what was served. It was
then that the king came and asked them why they were not eating. One getting no
response he said: it is true that none of you can eat yourself but why don’t
you try feeding the person in front of you? And the story ended happily. And
when people started co operating like this but in negative ways somebody coined
the phrase ‘you scratch my back, I shall scratch yours’. But in Kalyug, even
this phrase doesn’t adequately express the extent to which criminals
co-operate. Hence the new expression: survival by blackmail! And if you look at
how public servants get away with their acts of omissions and commissions one
may not be wrong in asking if it is also the art of governance!
Jacob Thomas, IPS, was handpicked by the Pinarayi led
government in Kerala to head the Vigilance Department with the ostensible aim
of cleansing the administration of corruption. Now, there had been two
allegations that had come out in public domain against Jacob Thomas himself.
One, while working with the Department of Ports at Kochi he had caused a loss
of Rs 15 crores to the exchequer by buying equipments without following the
prescribed procedure. Two, after taking leave he had worked for a college and
got additional remuneration. The latter when detected and objected to he had
repaid the amount so received and all seemed well after that.
Meanwhile an MLA
had sought information under the RTI Act and failed to get any though cases of
corruption are not exempted from disclosure. Though the dates of the
application, first appeal and second appeal are not known it has been reported
(Mathrubhumi, 10 Feb 2018) that the Chief Information Commissioner, Kerala
State Information Commission is going to conduct hearing on the appeal on 12
Feb 2018. (About how this is irrelevant and how the information commissioners
have murdered the RTI Act is a matter of independent study, or more precisely,
a case study sufficient to expose how the public servants can be the biggest
traitors in this country!)
Once at the top of the Vigilance Department, Jacob Thomas
went about his job like no other Vigilance Director before him. Unfortunately
for him, he literally opened a Pandora’s box by investigating allegations of
corruption and disproportionate assets cases against some senior members of the
IAS. And this most powerful lobby in the state retaliated by planning a mass
leave as a mark of protest. The Chief Minister stood his ground and listed the instances
when he had supported the secretaries against whom vigilance had recommended
prosecution. As per a report in the Mathrubhumi of 10 Jan 2017, Pinarayi
Vijayan had named K M Abraham, Tom Jose and hinted at Paul Antony, (without
actually naming him, and all were additional chief secretaries then with Paul
Antony being the Chief Secretary now!) and how he had not proceeded with the
action recommended by the Vigilance Department against any of them! In fact,
while examining a petition alleging that then Chief Secretary, S M Vijayanand,
had put in cold storage a vigilance report against Tom Jose, the High Court had
also reportedly (Mathrubhumi, 28 Jan 2017) asked if Tom Jose should be allowed
to continue in the civil service itself! The same newspaper had other two
serious reports too. One was about the Special Vigilance Court directing that
once prima facie charge has been established through a quick enquiry there was
no need for waiting for clearance from the court to register an FIR and proceed
with further investigations. The other was about how a petitioner alleged that
the Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Ms Nalini Netto, had ‘created’ a false
file to successfully remove the then DGP (Law and Order) Senkumar from his
post.
But the IAS lobby proved its strangle hold on government when
shortly Jacob Thomas was relieved from the high profile job of Vigilance
Director. One of the arm twisting
tactics adopted was not to honour personal recommendations of the ministers for
making appointments to various posts, including those where political
nominations were in vogue!(Mathrubhumi, 15 Jan 2017)
Cut to end of 2017. There had been a lot of hue and cry in
the aftermath of the typhoon Ockhi which ravaged the coastal areas of Kerala. In
one instance the victims did not even allow the CM to get into his car after
visiting them! And while being the Director of the Institute of Management in
Government, he invited suspension by echoing, during a public function, popular
sentiments about the failure of the government in warning the coastal folks and
the lackadaisical rescue and rehabilitation efforts. And now, hardening their
stand against him, the Chief Secretary, Paul Antony, has issued him a show
cause notice for his prosecution too. They have also alleged that his writing a
book while in service and without taking permission amounted to gross
illegality!
It is believed that when misfortune strikes, it pours! Now
the High Court of Kerala, while quashing an FIR registered by the Vigilance Department,
in what is popularly known as the Patoor land scam, has criticized Jacob Thomas
and even remarked that he needs to be disciplined! The case, in a nut shell is
like this. A private party had wanted the Kerala Water Authority to remove a
pipeline passing through a piece of land, allegedly encroached by the party.
The Authority refused claiming it was their land. The matter was taken up with
then Chief Secretary who recommended the removal of the pipes and it was
accepted by then Chief Minister, Ommen Chandy. Typical of Kerala, allegations
of corruption surfaced and Jacob Thomas, as Additional Vigilance Director, had
conducted an inquiry and submitted a report to the Lokayukta who was hearing a
complaint on the issue. The then Opposition Leader, V S Achuthanandan, came
down heavily on the Lokayukta alleging that he had locked up the report and had
also directed Jacob Thomas not to give any copies of that report to anybody
else! (Malayala Manorama, 11 Feb 2016) Interestingly another report in the
Malayala Manorama, of 01 April 2016, gives the following details, quoting the
Lokayukta: the land belonged to the private party who had not given any
permission for laying the sewage pipes through its property (!). It had applied for removal of the
pipes on 03 July 2008 and had deposited Rs 14,80,000/- on 25 Aug 2008 towards
the cost. There was nothing wrong in giving permission to the private party to shift the pipes at their cost (!) However, the investigations had
also revealed that the private party had encroached on 12.279 cents of land and
the District Collector had been directed to take possession of it immediately.
Also revealed were the manipulations at the revenue offices and the City
Corporation office, including pages torn off the relevant registers!
For me the following questions beg answers.
One, could the Water Authority have laid a pipe line through
a private property without even the owner’s permission?
Two, how long back was the pipe line laid?
Three, if the pipeline had been laid by the Water Authority
without the owner’s permission and the owner now wanted it to be removed should
the owner have approached a court of law?
Four, for what purpose, on what basis of calculation and on
whose instruction was Rs 14,80,000/- deposited on 25 Aug 2008?
Five, when was the permission granted for shifting and when
was the shifting completed?
Six, what all actions had been taken by the owner/public
servants between 25 Aug 2008 and the date of grant of permission? (It needs to
be remembered that during 2008 it was V S Achuthanandan who was the Chief
Minister and the permission was given after Ommen Chandy, who was one of the
accused, became Chief Minister in 2011!)
While, the whole series of reports indicate that none of the
public servants have been convicted for their alleged crimes the fact also
remains that in most of the cases there have been no honourable acquittals
either! Jacob Thomas, who is a DGP under suspension, has reportedly approached
the Central Government for a posting, preferably somewhere outside the country,
expressing fear for his life!
Well, that is how democracy is working in India’s
first fully literate state which is also acclaimed as God’s own country!
Two updates: one, Sen Kumar went to Supreme Court and got himself reinstated as DGP (Law and Order) one month prior to his retirement(!); and two, as on 24 Feb 2018 when I checked the website of the Kerala State Information Commission- http://www.keralasic.gov.in- not only did I not ( repeat NOT) find the decision on the appeal under the RTI Act, which was to be heard by the CIC, Vinson M Paul, on 12 Feb 2018, but was shocked to see that the site does not have any relevant information, not even the proactive disclosures mandated under Sec 4(10(b) of the RTI Act!
