Monday, November 22, 2010

The "presumptive" argument

The ever-repulsive spokesperson of the Congress party has unconvincingly argued that CAG's report on 2G Scam refers only to "presumptive loss" to the exchequer and therefore the country is needlessly agitated over a non-issue.

Even before we could digest this argument, the normally sensible P.Chidambaram has sought to throw further light on the theory of presumption. "I place some 50-60 signatures in a day with the presumption that they are right to the best of my knowledge. Perhaps few may go wrong, but they were not malafide because the intentions were right." (The Hindu dated 22nd Nov.)

Is Chidambaram serving advance notice on the prime minister ? This specious presumption argument can be used by every decision-maker. So no one can be held accountable for any decision, for who will accept his intentions were wrong?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are misinterpreting Chidambaram.He has only indicated that ministers do not have enough time to assess the merits of each and every note placed to them, in depth.

Hummingbird said...

Srivarahan's interpretation appears to be correct. It looks like the ground is being prepared for defence (on these lines) in the Supreme Court. Otherwise, why should that argument be advanced now?

The person who is approving a particular course of action assumes responsibility for the outcome of the action. While volume of work may be high, it is precisely for this reason we have a big (and bloated) bureaucracy to go through the papers and give proper advice to the decision maker(s).

If I remember right, in the past when Jayalalitha was accused of corruption, she was taken to task by the same politicians who said she is supposed to know what she is signing.

Regards.

K.R.Srivarahan said...

Dear Hummingbird,

It is sad that many comparatively less dishonest politicians also find themselves in the thankless situation of having to defend the obviously venal.