Competitive protest

Government designations can be a troublesome business, as former bureaucrat Vinod Dhall discovered recently. His descriptor as first Chairman of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) on a leaflet promoting an international conference on competition law drew protests from consumer rights organisation CUTS. Indeed, CUTS Secretary General Pradeep Mehta has even written a strongly-worded letter to the ministry of corporate affairs, CCI’s nodal ministry, accusing Dhall of making false claims. “He [Dhall] was not even an Acting Chairman which he has been claiming otherwise, but just the sole Member. The Department has never issued any order/notification declaring him to be the Acting Chairman,” Mehta’s letter stated, adding for good measure that Dhall was chiefly responsible for the delay in the implementation of the Competition Act 2002 when he was Secretary, Company Affairs. Considering Dhall left the CCI some years ago, it is worth wondering why Mehta has taken the trouble of making an issue of his designation and performance now.