Stuck over a silly amendment: Does the BJP not want Lokpal now?

Starting point

The essential amendment needed to operationalise the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act 2013 was borne out of the electoral mandate of the Lok Sabha polls of 2014.

When the BJP stormed the lower house with 272 seats and the largest Opposition party - the Congress - was decimated with a mere 44, the ruling party decided to deny the Congress the Leader of Opposition (LoP) status, citing failure of Congress in winning the minimum number of seats required.

The Congress leader in the house could only secure the status of the leader of the largest Opposition party.

So now, the problem was that the Lokpal Act had not envisaged this situation and had only provided for a LoP on the selection panel for appointing the Lokpal.

An amendment providing for including the leader of the single largest party in opposition on the selection panel in the absence of a recognised leader of opposition became necessary.

It is this amendment that is stalling the Bill. Even after the approval a key Parliamentary committee and this is the main reason why the Lokpal Act is yet to be operationalised.

Lokpal ready?

Among the states, as many as 22 have set up the office of the Lokayukta that is designed to be the Lokpal in the states. These include Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

However, many allege that the institution is not doing too well in most states, because of the absence of political will to make it a functional force.

A plea made before the Supreme Court point out that Karnataka, for example, is yet to appoint a new Lokayukta after the last Lokayukta Santosh Hegde resigned in 2010. Most of the IPS posts in its police wing are also vacant.

In Kerala, Lokayukta cannot initiate suo motu and also does not have independent staff. West Bengal Lokayukta office has all of only two Group D officers. Gujarat was without Lokayukta for 8 years.

Uttar Pradesh Lokayukta does not have prosecution powers and its investigating team is short-staffed. Also, reports of the Lokayukta are not binding on the government. In Maharashtra, there is no separate investigation agency under the Lokayukta.

In Rajasthan, the Lokayukta has no investigating agency of its own or even attached to it and it doesn't have punitive powers. Andhra Pradesh Lokayukta does not have powers to order a 'search and seizure'.

Nine states, including Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and West Bengal, are yet to enact the Lokayukta Act.

'How long is this going to take?'

Activists have been knocking on the doors of the Supreme Court for a long time and the top court has also expressed displeasure, pulling up the union government.

Hearing a plea filed by NGO Common Cause seeking direction to the Centre to appoint Lokpal, SC had nudged the government in May 2016 to act fast and not sit over it any longer. The government has obviously didn't listen and another activist was later forced to move the top court as well.

The court is now hearing a Public Interest Litigation on the matter, filed by Supreme Court advocate Ashwini Upadhyay. The PIL seeks appointment of Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in all states.

The SC has once again taken the Centre and states to task, issuing them a notice and asking them to respond why Lokpal and Lokayuktas are yet to become functional.

One will have to wait to find out what response will the governments give this time, but that hardly matters. What really matters right now is why is the union government not bringing in the essential amendment that will make the office of the Lokpal come alive.

Five years after aiding and fueling a massive agitation to set up the Lokpal, does the BJP not want a strong anti-corruption ombudsman now?

Edited by Jhinuk Sen

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