Kerala CM misquoted me over CVC: Prithviraj Chavan

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Thursday said that his Kerala counterpart V S Achutanandan had twisted his statement over the controversy surrounding the appointment of former Central Vigilance Commissioner P J Thomas.

Facing heat over the Prime Minister virtually blaming the Department of Personnel and Training, headed by him at that time, for the CVC?s appointment, Chavan had apparently said that the Kerala government had given Thomas a clean chit.

Achutanandan had taken offence at the statement and went on to say that the Maharashtra Chief Minister was ?lying? and trying to “hide his fault”.

“Though the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had owned responsibility for the error of judgment, Chavan is now trying to blame the Kerala government to hide his fault in recommending the name of Thomas for the CVC post,” Achutanandan said.

Chavan responded by saying that his statement had been ?misquoted and twisted? by the Kerala Chief Minister.

“All I had said in my press conference in Pune was that Thomas was appointed Chief Secretary by Government of Kerala,” he said.

Meanwhile the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday asked for Chavan’s resignation since his name had been mentioned by the Prime Minister himself over the appointment of Thomas, who had pending corruption cases against him, as the country?s top graft watchdog.

Maharashtra BJP president Sudhir Mungantiwar said that Chavan, who was known for his clean image, must step down on moral grounds.

Chavan?s Congress party promptly rebuked the demand saying that the BJP?s own B S Yeddyurappa, the Chief Minister of Karnataka, still showed no inclination of stepping down despite land scam cases piled upon him and his family.

Thursday?s exchanges came after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh passed the buck on to a department headed by Prithviraj Chavan for the appointment of P J Thomas as the Central Vigilance Commissioner.

The PM had said he “accepts and respects” the Supreme Court judgement nullifying the appointment of Thomas and accepted gull responsibility for the erroneous decision, before virtually saying that he was misinformed by Chavan?s department.

In a historic judgement on Thursday last, the Supreme Court struck down Thomas? appointment, dealing a major blow to the image of the embattled Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The court acted on a petition challenging appointment of Thomas as the country’s chief corruption watchdog since his past records on corruptions issues were not clean.

The court also found fault in the committee of the Prime Minister that appointed Thomas and said the government should have gone beyond his bio-data, where Thomas did not mention his implication in an edible oil import scam.