Advani behind Shailesh Gandhi becoming CIC in 2008

February 24, 2016 12:39

In his column on Rediff.com, 'How India must select information commissioners', Shailesh Gandhi spills the beans on how he came to be made the CIC in 2008.

'In the first week of August 2008, Arvind Kejriwal learnt that the government had decided on the names of four persons whom they would appoint as Central Information Commissioners. These were Satyananda Mishra, M L Sharma, Annapurna Dixit and R B Sreekumar,' writes Gandhi.

Kejriwal, after discussing the names with Gandhi, suggested that they suggest four names from civil society for the post.

On August 17, the four names were sent to L K Advani, then leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan, then a minister in the UPA government.

A meeting of the selection committee was called on the 21st, and the previous night the government's four names were shown to Advani.

'Advani strongly objected to Sreekumar's name since he had been a senior police officer in Gujarat at the time of the Godhra riots and had openly criticised Narendra Modi. He said he would oppose Sreekumar's selection and casually said, 'Why not one of the names suggested by civil society in their letter'?'

In the face of Advani's opposition, the selection committee meeting was not held on that day. It met instead on August 27 at which Gandhi's name was put in Sreekumar's place.

'Though there was no political patronage involved, there was no logical process and my selection was a random occurrence,' writes Gandhi. Hence, 'There is a great need to introduce a transparent process to select the information commissioners, who are expected to oversee transparency.'

This happened in 2008. Considering how Advani has been sidelined by the very man whose interests he had so zealously guarded then, makes us wonder whether he will still do the same thing in similar circumstances today?

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