De-commission

The Centre8217;s decision to wind up the Tehelka Commission, headed by Justice S.N. Phukan, raises serious questions about the sanctity of government-instituted commissions. It is another matter, of course, that these commissions have often been set up to tide over the immediate discomfort of a particular event or development, and that the reports of most commissions of inquiry have been treated cavalierly by the government of the day. Still, they do represent an impulse 8212; not just of a party or government but of the nation 8212; to correct serious anomalies in the system. They therefore demand a commitment that has, necessarily, to cut across party lines and rise above the sensitivities and interests of those in power.

Of course it is the prerogative of the government of the day to wind up a commission instituted by an earlier one 8212; a point acknowledged by Justice Phukan himself 8212; but the norm generally has been for new governments to allow commissions to carry on until a satisfactory conclusion to their exertions is reached. For instance, the Shiv Sena-BJP government8217;s move to scuttle the Srikrishna Commission inquiry in 1996 proved so controversial that one of the decisions taken by the 13-day Atal Bihari Vajpayee government was, in fact, to reinstate it.

Union law minister, H.R. Bhardwaj, justified the move to wind up the Phukan inquiry by arguing that it was going nowhere. But how would he know this if the inquiry was not complete? Also, since Bhardwaj himself maintained that Justice Phukan had not exonerated George Fernandes in his interim report, is he right in presuming that the 8220;various personalities8221; in the scam were not to come under the Commission8217;s scanner? The point is not that the Tehelka expose does not demand serious institutional correctives since it involves not just murky defence deals, but ministerial impropriety and the financial misdemeanour of a senior BJP functionary. The point is that if the process in achieving this were to appear partisan, it would be a self-defeating exercise. A bipartisan approach to government inquiries is the best way to ensure institutional reform.