The arguments put forward by the committee are just a fig leaf to justify their actions.

When I first came across the phrase ‘fig leaf’, it caught my attention immediately because I know it must be a metaphorical reference  to the book of Genesis in the Bible though I am not sure exactly what the it means here.

Fig leaf is derived from the story of Adam and Eve.  When God created the universe, He also made a paradise called the Garden of Eden.  Then God placed Adam and Eve the first man and woman in it.   Adam and Eve were free to eat any fruit grown on the trees except the tree planted in the middle of the garden.  However they ate of the fruit of that tree.  The moment they ate of it, their eyes were opened, and they realized they were naked.   They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves.  So the term ‘fig leaf’ is the covering up, usually insufficiently and inadequately,  of an act or embarrassing or disagreeable.