Information commissioner: Mallikarajun Kharge to oppose BS Bassi's selection

NEW DELHI: Congress Lok Sabha leader Mallikarajun Kharge will object to the selection of Delhi police chief BS Bassi as information commissioner if the government proposes his name at a selection committee meeting on Friday. It is not certain if Bassi figures in the list to be presented to the selection panel.

“Kharge will strongly object to Bassi’s name if it is in the short-list. The Congress has already demanded that Bassi be removed as police commissioner due to his mishandling of the JNU incident and not be given a post-retirement post. If the government wants to still appoint Bassi as information commissioner, it will not be a unanimous decision and Kharge will record his dissent,” a senior Congress leader told ET. The selecting committee comprising PM Modi, finance minister Arun Jaitley and Kharge is to select three information commissioners to the Central Information Commission to comply with the SC’s six week deadline that ends on Friday.

ET had reported last November that a top-level government search committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary had short-listed Bassi, along with five other persons, for the information commissioner’s post.