New Delhi : The ham-handed handling of the raging JNU row and the ‘inert’ response to the violence in the Patiala House Court complex has cost Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi the sought-after post-retirement job of Information Commissioner in the Central Information Commission.
A 1977 batch IPS officer, Bassi is due for retirement this month and the government has already nominated Tihar Jail chief Alok Kumar Verma as his successor. Bassi had applied in September for both the posts of Chief Information Commissioner and the Information Commissioner.
The CIC post was, however, filled in December when former Defence Secretary R K Mathur was appointed to the post. His name was dropped on objection by Mallikarjuna Kharge, leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, at a selection panel meeting here on Friday morning. The Congress was not only worried about the ‘track record’ of Bassi but also had questions about his ‘neutrality’.
Bassi told reporters that he was not disappointed at the decision to drop his name, adding that “it won’t be legitimate to comment further on a decision taken by a selection panel led by the Prime Minister.”
Bassi’s tenure saw him pitted against the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and sources said the police commissioner was convinced that he would be rewarded for trying to undermine the CM’s authority on the orders of the Centre.
The committee that appoints Information Commissioners is headed by the Prime Minister and includes the Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Meeting a six-week deadline set by the Delhi High Court to fill vacancies in the transparency watchdog, the panel met here on Friday morning in which various names were discussed.
