Cat’s got Manmohan’s tongue

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is known to be taciturn, speaking rarely in public, if at all, and only when obliged to do so by the party bosses. Occasionally asked to deploy his presumed high moral stature to criticise the Modi government, the last time he spoke was against demonetization. Using a verbal sledgehammer, he called notebandi ‘loot and plunder of ordinary people’. A few days later, ordinary people responded to that uncharacteristically strong bombast from Singh, voting overwhelmingly for the BJP in UP. 

But how one wishes Singh had spoken at least this once. No, not at the direction of 10 Janpath, but in response to his own conscience. For, the conviction of HC Gupta for corruption and criminal conspiracy ought to have troubled the ‘mauni baba’. Whether or not he actually felt anguished at the plight of someone who is widely considered by his former colleagues as upright and honest, any half-decent man is bound to feel sorry for Gupta who is being punished for the cravenness of others. In this case, it must be mentioned that Gupta was Secretary, Coal, while Singh was Minister, Coal. 

Now, if the former Prime Minister did put a call through to Gupta to, at the very least, commiserate with him, it has not been let out. If he has not, decency demands Singh should do so without any further delay. In fact, the former PM should join the public debate which has followed Gupta’s conviction and punishment. It has rightly caused a great deal of disquiet, nay, panic in the higher echelons of babudom. 

Shorn of verbiage, it boils down to this: Why should secretaries follow the orders of political masters if they, and not the ordering ministers, are to pay the price in convictions and jail terms for following ministerial orders?

Should such a fear psychosis spread among officers of the rank of joint secretary and above, who are supposed to be in the decision-making loop, it could prove disastrous for all governments, whether at the Centre or in the states.

The fact that even BK Chaturvedi, who was Cabinet Secretary for a long time when Singh was PM, has felt obliged to speak up for Gupta, calling him ‘one of the country’s most honest civil servants’ in a signed article, should nudge Singh’s conscience. The truth is that if there were wrongful allocations of coal blocks, it was because the Coal Minister wanted it to be made. Period. 

There is not a shred of evidence on record to prove that Singh, as Coal Minister, did not want the coal blocks allocated in the manner in which they were allocated. In other words, Singh, both as Prime Minister and as Coal Minister, cannot wash his hands of those mala fide decisions which led the apex court to nix the allocations en bloc and, eventually, led to the trial of the allottees and allocators alike but, most surprisingly, omitted the political bosses.  

Honestly, I make bold to say that the exclusion of Singh from the list of the accused was extraordinary. Judges ought to strictly go only by the merits of the case in hand. How can anyone brush aside the fact that Singh was Coal Minister when questionable allocations were made. Singh’s public image as a ‘good man fallen among crooks’ ought to have been irrelevant for the purpose of the trial. If Singh enjoyed a reputation for integrity, so did Gupta. If  Singh’s honesty permitted his exclusion from the list of the accused, it ought to have ensured Gupta’s exclusion as well. 

Yes, you could argue that Singh, both as PM and as Coal Minister, was pliant towards party bosses who sent slips with the names of parties to whom allocations were to be made.  But, then, if an honest Singh’s pliancy could be judicially condoned, how come it became a crime for an honest but pliant Gupta?  

His only fault was that he, like most bureaucrats under similar circumstances, took the path of least resistance, obeying the diktats of ministerial bosses? In my humble view, the judicial verdict lacks the benefit of cold and dispassionate reasoning even as it glosses over vital questions of ministerial responsibility and well-established conduct of business rules. 

Singh’s exoneration is akin to a judge pleading exculpation after dispatching an innocent to the gallows, arguing he was misled by the prosecution. The special court has not suggested that Gupta made a paisa from the wrongful allocations, another reason to believe he was merely doing the ministerial bidding. 

To sum up, the special court ruling is disturbing. It seems to suggest that politicians are holy cows, above reproach,  while bureaucrats must carry the can even if no evidence exists to prove they gained in any way from fulfilling ministerial wishes. Meanwhile,  P Chidambaram will be jumping with joy at the CBI court’s order. And I do not need to tell you why.

The author is a senior journalist