President's secretary Sanjay Kothari is new Central Vigilance Commissioner
New Delhi: Sanjay Kothari, the secretary to the president, was on Saturday appointed the Central Vigilance Commissioner, according to a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique.
The post of the chief of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), the country's anti-corruption watchdog, was lying vacant since June last year after K V Chowdary completed his tenure.
"At a ceremony held today at 1030 hrs at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Sanjay Kothari was sworn in as the Central Vigilance Commissioner," the communique said.
Kothari, 63, made and subscribed the oath of his office before the president, it said. The swearing-in ceremony was attended by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi among others.
The name of Kothari was recommended by a high-level selection panel headed by the prime minister in February. The move was then opposed by Congress that had termed the process adopted for the appointment of the Central Vigilance Commissioner "illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional" and demanded immediate scrapping of the decision.
Kothari's appointment to the top post of the probity watchdog now may further escalate a war of words between the ruling party and opposition Congress.
Reacting on his appointment, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari had in February demanded initiation of a fresh process for appointing the Central Vigilance Commissioner by inviting applications again.
"What we demand is that the entire process needs to be scrapped in its entirety, a de-novo process needs to be instituted, a fresh search committee needs to be constituted which is not conflicted. Applications need to be invited afresh," he had said.
Without naming anyone, Tewari had said that a man who is not an applicant and whose candidature was not considered by the search committee beyond the applicants and who is not shortlisted is cleared for appointment as next Central Vigilance Commissioner.
He had also pointed out that one of the applicants and shortlisted persons by the search committee was a members of the panel. Kothari, a 1978-batch IAS officer of Haryana cadre, retired in June 2016 as secretary, the Department of Personnel and Training.
He was in November 2016 appointed the chief of the government's head-hunter -- the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB). Kothari was in July 2017 named as the secretary to President Ram Nath Kovind.
The Central Vigilance Commissioner is appointed by the president on the recommendation of the selection committee consisting of the prime minister as its chairperson, and the home minister and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha as its members.
The tenure of CVC chief is of four years or till the incumbent attains the age of 65 years. Kothari will have tenure till late June next year.
The CVC can have a Central Vigilance Commissioner and two Vigilance Commissioners. At present, Vigilance Commissioner Sharad Kumar is working as the interim Central Vigilance Commissioner. After Kothari's appointment, there is still a vacancy of a Vigilance Commissioner in the commission.
Meanwhile, the central government had on Monday appointed Kapil Dev Tripathi the secretary to the president. Tripathi, a 1980 batch IAS (retired) officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, is the PESB chairman.
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In phone call, PM Modi, US President Trump resolve to promote global peace, security
New Delhi, Jan 27 (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump on Monday vowed to work towards a "trusted" partnership between India and US and advance global peace and security in their first phone conversation since the American leader's inauguration last week.
Modi and Trump exchanged views on global issues, including the situation in West Asia and Ukraine, and deliberated on measures to boost bilateral cooperation in areas such as technology, trade, investment, energy and defence, an Indian readout said.
The two leaders agreed to meet soon, it said.
"Delighted to speak with my dear friend President @realDonaldTrump @POTUS.
Congratulated him on his historic second term," Modi said on 'X'.
"We are committed to a mutually beneficial and trusted partnership. We will work together for the welfare of our people and towards global peace, prosperity, and security," he said.
In a statement, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said the two leaders "reaffirmed" their commitment for a "mutually beneficial and trusted partnership".
"They discussed various facets of the wide-ranging bilateral Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership and measures to advance it, including in the areas of technology, trade, investment, energy and defence," it said.
"The two leaders exchanged views on global issues, including the situation in West Asia and Ukraine, and reiterated their commitment to work together for promoting global peace, prosperity and security," the PMO said.
"The leaders agreed to remain in touch and meet soon at an early mutually convenient date," it added.
It is not immediately known whether the issues of immigration and tariff figured in the talks.
Like in many countries, there have been some concerns in India as well over the Trump administration's approach on immigration and tariff.
President Trump has already talked about slapping "100 per cent tariffs" on the BRICS grouping, a bloc that includes India too.
It is learnt that the phone call was initiated from the Indian side.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said last week that India is looking for "bolder, bigger and a more ambitious" relationship with the US and indicated its readiness to work with the Trump administration to address issues like illegal immigration and trade.
The phone conversation between Modi and Trump came six days after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held separate meetings with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz in Washington.
Jaishankar also attended the Quad foreign ministers' meeting in the American capital. The meeting was the Trump administration's first foreign policy engagement.
At a media briefing in Washington on January 22, Jaishankar said his meetings signalled that the Trump administration "prioritising" the bilateral relationship with India.
The external affairs minister also said that there was agreement between the two sides about the need to be bolder, bigger, and more ambitious about the bilateral relationship.
Asked about the Trump administration's policy on tariff and immigration, Jaiswal said on Friday that India is looking at addressing issues in a constructive manner.
"Our approach has always been to address issues in a constructive manner which is in keeping with the interests of both countries," he had said at his weekly media briefing last week.
"We remain in close communication with the US administration and would like to continue to work towards strengthening our economic partnership further," he said.
India is also keen to continue cooperation under the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) that was launched during the tenure of the Biden administration.
