Congress on Monday put a brave face on former Supreme Court Judge K.T. Thomas turning down the offer to head the Lokpal search committee, days after jurist Fali Nariman opted out of panel.

“Where is the question of government being embarrassed. I do not find any head or tail of this question. It is a statutory body. Each position on this has to be fulfilled,” party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters.

“Giving or not giving consent cannot be linked to government. These are private decisions. People can say yes or no for many reasons. How you can blame government for this?”

Mr. Singhvi’s reaction came after Mr. Thomas turned down the offer to head Lokpal search committee.

“The reason is when I went through the rules, our committee which is called the search committee was to recommend names to select committee. The select committee need or need not to accept those names. So it was not worth while to have this search committee,” the former judge said giving reasons for his opting out.

Mr. Thomas was a judge in the apex court between March 29, 1996 and January 1, 2002.