SURVIVAL BY BLACKMAIL OR THE ART OF GOVERNANCE?

-P M RAVINDRAN, raviforjustice@gmail.com, http://raviforjustice.blogspot.in, 17 Feb 2018

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!