Press coverage: I hope it catches

Some journos from Dainik Jagran contacted me from my hometown. They had heard and were impressed with the work that I am doing on these senior level appointments linking with Constitution and firing the volley of RTIs at the government( My blog is almost full of that. For those who don't know, my RTI applications are never related to corruption and are highly non-direct. I am trying to make the system work as per the Constitution at the top level in the government with almost no change. The rest of correction to the bottom, my assumption is, will follow in due time.)

Apparently, the newspaper was doing a coverage on a new freedom struggle. I felt honoured to be associated with this phrase. I have always maintained that just everyday minor vigilance is enough. Not too big a fan of a one time struggle and a happily everafter theory. The journalist got my contact through a friend he knew ,who is himself a nutty chap, and requested a telephonic session since I was at Delhi.

I gladly obliged.

The scan copy of the article is shown on this page for your check. There are some minor errors made in this report. I'll be filing a petition in Delhi High Court, not in Supreme Court. He made me younger by a year too though I don't mind that. :)

Stunning replies...now what?

I received two responses from the government in last 15 days. And both were absolutely stunning.

Their first response to my question on Cabinet Secretary's appointment read as follows( and I quote it verbatim here):

"The file for the appointment to the post of the Cabinet Secretary is not sent to the President of India, who is the appointing authority of the Cabinet Secretary."

How does the above mentioned sentence in English-language speaking world make sense? And they give to me in writing an admission of illegality which I was always suspecting and pursuing since last one and a half years now.

I am stunned.

Their second response to my email send to grievances' cell( this is different from RTI) pointing out that the law be followed by having the appointing authority to appoint the Cabinet Secretary was given the response that( I quote verbatim again) :

"This is a suggestion and not a grievance."

An email saying that the law be followed is treated as a suggestion. Goodness !!

I am stunned to the point of numbness. I have been trying to avoid a PIL at all cost. But this is pushing me to a corner. I'll be forced to file a PIL.

God help!

New Cabinet Secretary is being appointed

Ajit Kumar Seth has been approved to be the next Cabinet Secretary. The government's communication is here .

I had already sent reminders to the government that they themselves agree that the President should appoint the Cabinet Secretary. Now after the above mentioned Prime Minister's approval to the appointment the President must appoint Sh Ajit Kumar Seth.

I have sent another reminder today which is pasted below. I am keeping what I am doing in public because you must know whats going on in real time now.

Dear Sir,

This is with reference to my grievance registration number DOPAT/E/2011/00131 and in reference to approval of appointment of Mr Ajit Kumar Seth to the post of Cabinet secretary vide Secretariat of Appointments Committee of the Cabinet(ACC) communication No 15/10/2011-EO(SM.I) dated 24th May 2011.

Kindly note that the President is the appointing authority of Cabinet Secretary per information provided under RTI Act. The above mentioned communication number of ACC is also sent to the President’s Secretariat. Shri Ajit Kumar Seth is approved to take charge from 13th June, 2011. Kindly ensure that the law of the land is followed by having the appointing authority to appoint Mr Ajit Kumar Seth as the next Cabinet Secretary as approved by the ACC. The President can hold no discretion in this matter of his/her own as the President is bound by advice of his/her ministers.

This is my second reminder to you on the subject for providing a redressal of my grievance.

With regards,

Milan Gupta.

Judgment of CIC

Here's the link to the 7th March judgment of CIC dimissing my appeal.

Deepak Sandhu was the Information Commissioner hearing the appeal. The Deputy Secretary, Rajiv Mittal, had also been summoned.

The appeal was not be heard by Deepak Sandhu because she is not assigned the constitutional subjects. Yet, she passed an order.

The order is also not a speaking order, which means she should have explained her own reasons (in the sections of "Decision") and countering my reasons to justify her judgment.

I am more irritated by absence of an explanatory order than by the dismissal itself.

My date with history

7th March 2011

The date is set. In five days from today I'll attack at the weakest point in the system.

The weakness that has gone unnoticed for decades, hidden deep beneath clauses on which rules formed by articles of the constitution are run;

the assumptions which were never verified, and taken for granted.

It was a fatal weakness introduced on 20th Aug 1947, just 5 days after independence.

The results will have gargantuan effect. Suddenly, surreptiously, slowly this will have its effect. It contains truth. It will not be stoppable.

At the very top in the brain centre of this system, an almost insignificant small wire was hooked to a wrong end. Wrong it was, because the hooking done on 20th Aug , 1947 did not have any precedent nor any legal basis.

It just went unnoticed. Because it directly affected none. Because it was marked "confidential." And it set in. It let a culture develop. And we mistook that culture as culture of corruption inherent in our genes. Uncorrectable corruption problem, for decades, so it must be our genes, so we thought.

We, the people, are not corrupt in culture or genes. Its not in my genes and its not in yours. It never was, never will be.

The Indian corruption phenomenon is a symptom of that easily correctable error which does not require any law to be brought in, not a notification is needed.

I'll be telling this story for a long time to come.

If I win, we win. If I lose, I lose. Hope will still prevail.

My date with history is set.

Some success...

Finally the morons sent me a proper reply.

Last, I had asked them " Who is the competent authority to appoint the Cabinet Secretary?".

They had replied : "The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet(ACC)."

So I reminded the bozos that the ACC consists of ministers and the ministers can appoint no one.

Finally, I got a convulated reply in which they said that they re-evaluated the matter in the Cabinet Secretariat and replied that the President of India is the competent authority to appoint the Cabinet Secretary.

I was elated with joy! They rescinded on their earlier answer and gave the right answer this time!

However, they are still sticking to the logic that the authority to appoint does not have to sign the appointment because President is just a figurehead or a rubber stamp. After all, the bureaucrats have to justify their illegal action of bypassing the President, even though they have now admitted in writing that he is the authority to appoint the Cabinet Secretary.

God save us from this stupidity. Are they so dumb to be claiming this logic?

Even then, this reply was first taste of a success. At least I got the highest government department in the country to correct their assumptions regarding the appointment of and by the highest authorities.