There is no doubt that the National Democratic Alliance government’s transparency quotient will be described as low if one were to look at the vacancies in statutory organisations such as the Central Vigilance Commission and the Central Information Commission. The rare media interactions with ministers and government officials till recently also showed the Narendra Modi regime was probably not up to any scrutiny.
The recent coal block auctions and telecom spectrum bidding are being cited by the government as examples of its openness and transparency. The two auctions stand out against the backdrop of alleged scams in coal allocation and spectrum under the previous United Progressive Alliance regime. Estimated losses to the exchequer in the 2G spectrum scam was Rs 1.76 lakh crore and Rs 1.86 lakh crore in coal, due to arbitrary decision-making.
In contrast, the recent spectrum auction fetched Rs 1.09 lakh crore and coal bidding Rs 2.8 lakh crore, providing the government reason to showcase these as its transparency story. The auctions followed cancellation of several scam-hit telecom licences and coal blocks by the Supreme Court.
Coming to the statutory organisations, the CVC and CIC have been without a head for several months. After Central Vigilance Commissioner Pradeep Kumar completed his term on September 28, the slot is vacant. The vacancy of one of the two vigilance commissioners has also not been filled. The CVC is headed by a Central Vigilance Commissioner and has two Vigilance Commissioners. Government officials maintained the delay in appointment of CVC and VC was due to a petition filed in the Supreme Court by a non-governmental organisation, Centre for Integrity, Governance & Training in Vigilance Administration, challenging the lack of transparency in the selection process. But, earlier this month, the Supreme Court lifted the embargo on processing the CVC appointments.
Another top appointment pending is of the Chief Information Commissioner, after Rajiv Mathur completed his tenure on August 22. Appointment of information commissioners at the CIC is on hold, too. Estimates suggest around 40,000 cases are pending before the Central Information Commission. In fact, recently the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information led a protest march to Parliament on the issue that there was no oversight on authorities such as the prime minister’s office and cabinet secretariat among others. The Right to Information Act provides for a CIC and a maximum of 10 information commissioners.
Even the Election Commission appointments have been delayed. Only recently, A K Joti, former chief secretary, Gujarat, was appointed election commissioner, still leaving one vacancy to be filled in the three-member body. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, too, is without a chairman since Rahul Khullar’s term ended on May 13, though the process of selection is on.
While it is not unusual for key appointments to take time, the government is not expected to keep statutory organisations headless even for a day, according to an official.
On the matter of the government’s interaction with the media, which has been at an all-time low, till ministers and officials got talking about achievements of the Modi regime, the argument has been that news and updates have all been out in the social media. True, Prime Minister Modi and some ministers are active on Twitter, as well as on Facebook. Modi’s posts are “liked” by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO.
But does one-way communication compensate for real-life conversation? Perhaps realising that gap, the prime minister has begun talking to the media and giving interviews. So have many ministers, conveying to the nation the good work they say has been done in the past year.
