However an important factor which obstructs such involvement is that while the possibility of change is most identified with electoral politics, this has become so corrupt and manipulative in many places that the most sincere voices for genuine change are often lost in this. Even when some very sincere persons manage to cross the first few barriers because of their hard work and determination and that of their colleagues, they find their further path blocked by systemic obstructions. The entire process often turns out to be so discouraging that it puts off many people from trying again, although their sincerity is very much needed to bring real change.

However there can be a different approach which is likely to maintain morale at high levels and bring better results in due course. This is to keep a political movement constantly at a high level of activity and engagement with people, regardless of election cycles, on the basis of commitment to the truth, with truth being understood as the most sincere, uncompromising, evidence-based understanding of the existing (and recent) situation and the changes most needed in this situation. Further, such a political movement seeks change not only in the wider system but also among people, particularly in its own members, so that more and more people are also encouraged and enabled to become better human beings. Thus while electoral breakthroughs may be delayed due to systemic factors, even in its early stage this movement starts contributing to creating a better world and its own members also start experiencing a reduction of their distress and a strengthening of their commitment and capability.

To try to explain more clearly, the mobilisation I am suggesting here consists of several important aspects. Firstly, the movement creates a statement on the basis of extensive consultation regarding the state of the world (and any particular country), important aspects and causes of distress and high risks and the way forward for reducing these. Although this remains open, on the basis of past experience it may be stated very broadly that what is likely to emerge from extensive consultation is a path based on the precepts of justice and equality, peace and non-violence, protection of environment and biodiversity, transparency and democracy, decentralisation and cooperation, and these precepts will have to be applied in various situations to find satisfactory and meaningful solutions.

Secondly, these precepts and the skills of applying them in various situations to find solutions to various problems must be spread widely among people on a constant basis. Education must be understood more and more in this context.

Thirdly, and this is a very important but neglected aspect, this movement also creates encouraging and enabling environment for its members and supporters to make such changes in their life as will contribute to reducing their distress while increasing their capacity to contribute more to wider social change. To give an example, a person may be suffering distress in his life due to avoidable violence in his thinking and actions, various kinds of addictions and substance abuse, loneliness, breakdown of important social relationships etc. This social movement creates enabling and encouraging conditions for people to apply its precepts to their own life to get rid of many problems and causes of distress, while at the same time creating possibilities of very constructive engagements of its members at local levels and community gatherings, enlivened hopefully with music and dance.

Fourthly, when various election opportunities for public office emerge, whether at local at higher levels, then the political front of this movement participates in these, or independent candidates supported by the movement participate, in an energetic but calm way, not showing any signs of desperation. Regardless of electoral success or not, without being affected too much by it, the movement  continues on its journey of truth as perceived and understood by it, a journey which is constantly improving social life and also contributing to a better life of its members and supporters.

Fifthly, I think of all this more in terms of worldwide change with the movements in various countries and places being supportive towards such change.

Sixth, these movements should concentrate more in terms of providing and advancing alternative paths instead of expanding most of their energy on the criticism of others. The overall approach should, as far as possible, be polite and not too aggressive, avoiding use of very strong language in the context of being critical towards others. In other words, the movement should always tell the truth as understood by it but as far as possible in relatively polite ways. Instead of insisting too much on inflicting very harsh punishments on those guilty of big misdeeds, the movement should place more emphasis on remedial actions and if those guilty of misdeeds are willing to accept their guilt and try to make up for this in various ways, then as far as possible this should be accepted.

Seventh, instead of merely speaking about alternatives, this movement should try, to the extent possible, to create examples of sustainable community life, natural farming, renewable energy, crafts and cottage industry, self-reliant rural life, eco-friendly urban life, equality based community life, cooperation among people in various ways for taking forward big tasks. All such efforts will help to increase hope and lead to further creative initiatives.

In keeping with the precepts it advances, this movement should be peaceful, non-violent, transparent and democratic. All its members need not agree with all decisions of the movement, or its political front. Members can continue to state publicly their differences on certain issues, while maintaining their unity with the movement at a wider level.

Ninth, despite remaining non-violent and polite, when the members of this movement face repression and violence, there should be arrangements for providing prompt help to them by the movement. There can also be wider arrangements for helping members in distress and systems of mutual support. When external efforts are made to harm the movement by planting hostile agents, there should be democratic methods in place for identifying and checking such harm at an early stage.

While more attention can certainly be given to issues closer to home, the movement should have universal concerns to create a safer, happier world and reduce distress and high risks at world level.

The movement should be able to attract and maintain support of people at various levels of involvement. Some may be able to give only less time, while some may be in a position to give most of their time. Some may lead from the front in peaceful agitations that can face repression, while some may contribute only in some low-risk constructive activities. The movement should be able to accept and appreciate whatever big or small support it gets from various supporters and members in terms of their ability to contribute. It should include a wide range of activities, all aimed at creating a better and safer world, so that various members and supporters can choose from several available avenues to make their contribution.

(The author writer is honorary convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now; his recent books include Protecting Earth for Children, Planet in Peril, A Day in 2071, India’s Quest for Sustainable Farming and Healthy Food, A Day in 2071, Earth without Borders and Man over Machine—A Path to Peace)

Related:

Corruption as an issue in Indian Election Campaigns: the 2024 story

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I am someone who has been teaching postgraduate courses in post-independence history for decades. My mind goes back to the stirring speech of Feroze Gandhi (1912-1960) in the Lok Sabha on December 16, 1957 [Incidentally, December 16 is also the birthday of my daughter whom we adopted and lost at the hands of a hasty and therefore botched up juridical pronouncement, arguably succumbing to the regressive Muslim Personal Law].

The then Prime Minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru was a quintessential democrat, save some debatable blemishes. Feroze was on the treasury benches, acting more ferocious than any qualified opposition leader could have acted. As we look around today, when parts of world are moving rapidly towards electoral autocracy combined with ethnic hatred, we note with great regret that rather than strengthening and deepening our democracy, we have been eroding it significantly.

Feroze Gandhi had (1957) exposed the officials of the State Bank of India (SBI) and of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India involved in (or subjected to) the scam; he was unsparing about the Finance Minister as well. The shady and corrupt transactions of Mr. Mundhra were exposed. Nehru didn’t raise the bogey of the foreign-hand in order to silence Feroze. I therefore strongly recommend — to postgraduate students taking my course—that they read the wonderfully written text of the speech that was delivered with great passion in the Lok Sabha on December 16, 1957. One remembers Feroze today, precisely because of this unwavering speech. Rajni Patel wrote in the Foreword to one famous biography, (Shashi Bhushan, 1977) of Feroze, “At a time we are once again concerned with refashioning our democratic values and revitalizing our public institutions, it is good to recapitulate the work and ideals of a pioneer” that Feroze was.

Had it been today, the Parliamentarian (Feroze Gandhi) could have been chastised as a seditious religious minority out to wreck “Bharat Mata”. Those were the days of a fledgling, proud, strong and emergent democracy; not the sham period we live through today. The then PM was not scared, not insecure and frightened to be losing his office. The regime of that time allowed the debate to take place and it was also widely reported widely in the media. Incidentally, the very same parliamentarian had fought successfully to legislate a law permitting press-coverage of Parliamentary proceedings. Contrast this with the current scenario when our Prime Minister has not had the moral courage to address a single press conference in two terms, that is the last 10 years, and this fact does not appear to disturb the electorate.

Subsequently, in August 1965, there were food riots in India, student upsurges in the Bihar and Hindi belt against corruption, inflation and unemployment. On August 9, 1965, students, employees and the opposition had gheraoed the Bihar Assembly in Patna. They had battled with the police. Herbert Heidenreich (1968), in his research-essay, The Anatomy of a Riot, notes,

“The police resorted to firing in eighteen places throughout the state as railway stations were sacked, government offices and homes of Cabinet members burned, and warehouses looted. Order was finally restored after five days; in many places only when army units were deployed. Journalists and other observers tend to attach adjectives to their descriptions of political violence in India. Thus there are ‘communal’ riots, ‘food’ riots, or ‘language’ riots”

This is how the 1967 elections came to be held against the incumbent regime. We don’t yet witness any such phenomenon in India today after the expose of the Electoral Bond Scam in 2024! Though, we live through, otherwise, an “age of mob fury”, era of lynching, an age of easy provocations and most brutal violence. One reason of course is that we have too many non-state actors, of course, in complicity with the regime, enjoying an impunity from the state, who resort to group violence. Is that why the expose of the biggest scam in the history of independent ever doesn’t provoke the nationalist commitment of the vigilante groups?

Another reason is obvious. “Mainstream newspapers” (Hindi and English and many other regional languages as also the commercial TV news channels) have gone mostly silent. At best, they are reluctantly informing us about these scandals with least possible quantum of information. The best known anchors, shrill when it comes to promoting stigma against vulnerable sections or brazenly promoting one leader and his party, have also been rendered voiceless.

The anti-Emergency campaign and the run up to the 1977 elections are too well known to be re-counted here in detail. Ironically, some of the anti-Emergency crusaders of the 1970s have turned into the practitioners of undeclared Emergency today.

The 1989 elections were held on the back of a campaign against the Bofors Scandal (1987). The then Finance Minister, V P Singh,  resigned from government and led the oppositional coalition to victory and formed a short-lived government, supported by both the left and right. Over decades, VP Singh’s allegations have turned out to be either exaggerated or baseless. There were other mistakes too, that Rajiv Gandhi had committed. He had surrendered “to the forces of prejudice, illiberalism and fundamentalism” in the case of Shahbano Judgment of 23 April 1985, which was upturned through a parliamentary legislation in 1986. This immensely contributed to the rise of majoritarian forces, candidly confessed even by its chief villains, the Muslim clergy, who also nationalized the local dispute of Ayodhya. (See Abulhasan Ali Miyan Nadvi’s Urdu memoir, Karwaan-e-Zindagi. 1988, vol. 3, chapter 4). Rajiv Gandhi, however, had enough grace to have later confessed to the journalist Vir Sanghvi (A Rude Life, 2021) “I was young. I made mistakes”. V P Singh-Arun Nehru combine targeted Rajiv Gandhi like anything. Their partner-in-crime, so to say, was the English daily Indian Express (IE). This is a newspaper, which has today given space to several right wing ideologues and official spokespersons. Ajaz Ashraf writes (Mid Day, April 3, 2023),

“Since May 2014, when the BJP swept into power, its members have altogether written 640 opinion pieces over approximately 3,000 days. This means a piece from the RSS-BJP stable was being published in one of the three newspapers every fifth day. Of the 640 pieces, IE accounted for 337, HT 97 and TOI 206. IE’s figures are high partly because its archive is the best among the three. Its opinion pages are vibrant—proprietors and editors fear a backlash only when they speak out against the government.

I found that 399 of the 640 pieces, or 62.34 per cent, mention Prime Minister Narendra Modi or his government at least once. In one piece, RSS leader Ram Madhav mentions Modi 20 times, in another 18 times. Former President Ram Nath Kovind referred to Modi 22 times in just one piece written, thankfully, after he demitted office. Union Minister Bhupender Yadav did so 21 times in an article. Most BJP spokespersons possess a sycophantic inclination to needlessly repeat Modi’s name in their pieces.

Guess they owe it to Modi for turning them into writers. Since May 2014, Madhav has written 101 pieces for IE, 25 for HT and six for TOI. The IE index of authors shows he began writing only in May 2014. Former Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu has written 68 pieces across the three newspapers, Bhupender Yadav 34, MP Dr Rakesh Sinha 31 for IE, for which former minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has penned 22. Spokesperson Anil Baluni has 26 bylines for IE and his colleague Shehzad Poonawalla 20 for TOI.

The 2014 elections were held in the background of the “India Against Corruption” (IAC) campaign of 2011, led by a non-descript “non-ideological” old man Anna Hazare and thereafter, Arvind Kejriwal. Soon, it became pretty clear that majoritarian right wing forces were surreptitiously supporting and sustaining the anti-corruption movement. Very few academics and public intellectuals had the foresight to warn us against such a dangerous anti-ideological movement of the majoritarian forces. By the 2014 elections, India underwent a change almost beyond recognition. What India and the regime stands for today, repudiates almost everything that the freedom movement and the Constitution envisions and commits itself to.

In most of the milestone moments of the electoral history of independent India, the “progressive” forces (Socialists and parts of the Leftists) have aligned with the right wing majoritarian forces. With every of such moment, the majoritarian forces gained greater political strength, social base and institutional penetrations. By now, they have become the hegemons, aided by crony capital and the state institutions at the service of their partisan politics to hound and harass the opposition with. Rahul Gandhi is almost a lone crusader to be going into the masses through his Yatras amidst acute resource-crunch and state-hounding.

As yet there is no biography of Rahul Gandhi. Though, there are not less than two, unflattering, accounts (viz., Sugata Srinivasaraju’s, Strange Burdens and Dayashankar Mishra’s Hindi book) cataloguing the viciously hostile political atmosphere in which he is operating.

Besides the anti-Muslim communal hatred, what else is/are the factor(s) which could possibly explain why we don’t we see a popular outrage on the ground against the Electoral Bond Scam which financially not only cripples but also asphyxiates the opposition to death? This is no longer a concern of a specific oppositional political party alone. It is a question of democracy itself. Why 85% of Indians wish to have autocratic regime?

I am really puzzled about this “indifference” of the people towards the expose of the electoral Bond Scam (corruption). I ask myself, are we no longer thinking humans? Have we, as a nation, become machines controlled by our vicious political leaders? Has the governing party semitized the majority like some religions, where we refuse to evaluate our faith (our politics) with reason? We remain faithful followers of our preferred political party and leader round the clock all the time when, in a vibrant democracy, we are expected to be voters of a specific party only for the polling day, and for the rest, become vigilant and critical citizens. Or, have we, all or most of us, turned into card-holding cadres? We react to the political party we have voted for, in a manner as if we are afraid of committing a heresy against our faith, that is, the wrong acts of the political party of our choice? Why have we become a prisoner, a fanatic supporter of messianic, cult politics, hence a retrogressive, backward looking nation?

After all, way back in November 1937 (The Modern Review, Calcutta), a pseudonym Chanakya, had written against this attitude which “potentially paves the path to Caesarism and dictatorship”. We later got to know that he was none other than Nehru writing against himself. It was his way of training Indians against cult worship. This phenomenon of cult politics was a sad truth for provincial politics in the latter half of the last century, when caste-based, corrupt, nepotist, dynastic parties have had turned into a faith-like creed or sect, in the name of social justice. By the second decade of the current century we magnified this tendency to an alarming level? Why are we in love with electoral autocracy, authoritarianism? Why are we endorsing institutional meltdown? Have we become a psychopathic case? Are we suffering from the Stockholm Syndrome-having fallen in love with our oppressors and tormentors?

The present phenomenon cannot be explained away by just faith-based hatred of one group of citizens against another! True, minority conservatism and communalism has contributed immensely to the strengthening of the majoritarian forces, particularly in the 1980s. True also that the liberal-left forces have often supported (or gone silent on) minority regressivism. This resulted into their gradual but inevitable erosion of the credibility of the liberal-left. So much so that today, increasingly larger number of Muslim narrative-making groups, influencers, columnists and academics are falling into the lap of the dispensation to extract small favours such as vice chancellorship of a few selected “Muslim” institutions. This is amply demonstrated by Felix Pal (2020). Quite a few of these Muslim “notables” do have antecedence of affiliation with the Muslim Right Wing as well as having extracted favour from the ruling Congress (in the pre-NaMo era).

Nonetheless, there is certainly more to the majoritarian resurgence in India (and beyond) in the recent times, in a phase of late-capital crisis and crony capitalism. Identity politics and competitive communalisms constitute only a part of the current crisis in India. Today, in the social media, saffron narratives are most prevalent. Anti-communal narrative- making stuff is less visible than the pro-establishment propaganda. “Neoliberal psychopolitics is a technology of domination that stabilizes and perpetuates the prevailing system by means of psychological programming and steering”, says, Byung-Chul Han, in his 2017 booklet, Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power. But how to get out of this is not something coming out as lucidly from this philosopher, Han. Have we, as a collective, been turned into “unintelligent”, or “stupid” or “idiot”? We are into the era of mass stupidity? If so, what is the possible answer, being offered by Han? He says,

“The idiot is a modern-day heretic. Etymologically, heresy means ‘choice’. Thus, the heretic is one who commands free choice: the courage to deviate from orthodoxy. As a heretic, the idiot represents a figure of resistance opposing the violence of consensus. The idiot preserves the magic of the outsider. Today, in light of increasingly coercive conformism, it is more urgent than ever to heighten heretical consciousness”.

In my very limited understanding, Rahul Gandhi, much maligned as the so called Pappu, and everyone engaged in the epic resistance, can be said to be pursuing the noble act and mission of raising the heretical consciousness of the masses who have sadly been turned into unquestioning faithful (bhakts) of the semitized and oppressive political establishment. May this tribe of “idiots” rise in this era of despondency and desperation! We need larger number of “idiots” to take away the elements of bhakti from us and to shake us to realize how badly we are being looted by a handful of the capitalists. These crony capitalists have snatched away employment from our educated and skilled youth. This band of select two dozen or so capitalists are busy destroying all the wealth of the nation including minerals, water, forests, environment, the very essence of being humans. Has allegience to them overtaken all the state institutions.

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The post Corruption as an issue in Indian Election Campaigns: the 2024 story appeared first on SabrangIndia.

“No democratic government can survive without accountability and the basic postulate of accountability is that the people should have information about the functioning of the government… that an open society is the new democratic culture towards which every liberal democracy is moving. Our society should be no exception.” — Justice PN Bhagwati, Supreme Court of India, in SP Gupta vs Union of India, 1981.

“The citizen’s right to know the facts about the administration of the country is thus one the pillars of a democratic state. And that is why the demand for openness in the government is increasingly growing in different parts of the world.” — Justice PN Bhagwati.

Having read these statements of some very eminent previous judges of the Supreme Court of India, kindly now refer to what the Supreme Court had to say very recently on October 30, 2023. The Supreme Court said that the Right to Information (RTI) Act is fast becoming a “dead letter law”. Seven of the 11 information commissioner (IC) posts in the Central Information Commission are vacant and the body will become defunct if replacements for the 4 incumbent commissioners due to retire in November are not filled in time.

Due to similar non-filling of IC posts in time, Telangana’s State Information Commission has been defunct since February 2023, Tripura’s SIC since July 2021 and Jharkhand’s SIC since May 2020. There are shortages of ICs due to unfilled posts in several other SICs too with the result that appeals have been piling up — a many as 115,000 in Maharashtra alone.

This is the situation despite the fact that as early as 2019 the Supreme Court had already directed governments to fill up such vacancies without delays. This raises serious questions regarding the commitment today to such an important strength of democracy as RTI. The present situation is very sad, as earlier India’s RTI efforts had been admired internationally.

This writer remembers the days leading up to and following RTI legislation in India when at international seminars the story of India’s RTI journey would get special attention and applause as here this journey had been led by people’s grassroots struggles.

The efforts and yearnings of about 15 years culminated in fairly satisfactory RTI legislation being passed in India in the year 2005. Two aspects of the RTI movement in India are quite remarkable and demand wider attention.

Before the right to information movement in India, the demand for this right was generally not related to the struggles of the poor. However in India this demand rose from the struggles of the peasants and workers in Rajasthan being mobilized by the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathna (MKSS).

This became an integral part of the struggles of the MKSS and other organizations to improve rural employment and drought relief work which play an important part in sustaining life and livelihood in Rajasthan. This trend of RTI being used to serve the needs of the poor was maintained in other struggles in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi and elsewhere.

Secondly, it is quite remarkable that while in the beginning of this campaign — say around the year 1990 — there was very little support for RTI and in fact a lot of misgivings were expressed about it, by the time the legislation was discussed in Parliament in year 2005, such a strong base had been created for its wide acceptability that even politicians known to be opposed to it were not inclined to voice their feelings publicly.

It is interesting and significant how this public opinion in favour of RTI was created within a relatively short period of about 15 years or so. At least a part of the credit should go to the several small groups who worked for this cause. There was a National Campaign for People’s Right to Information and other groups at the state-level.

At times all these efforts taken in isolation appeared to be quite small and inadequate. But taken together their efforts to keep the issue alive on a continuing basis appear to have been quite effective and when other circumstances also became favourable, then fairly strong national level legislation would be passed.

During these 15 years at various times state-level RTI laws were enacted by nine state governments including Tamil Nadu, Goa, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir. In some states administrative orders were passed for RTI at the village council level or for some selected departments.

Some Chief Ministers like Digvijay Singh (Madhya Pradesh), Ashok Gehlot (Rajasthan) and Sheila Dikshit (Delhi) spoke strongly in favour of RTI. However most of the state laws were relatively weak. In Goa despite the law being weak, however, during the very first year the government received about 400 requests for information. Many of these were related to pollution. MK Jose and his colleagues made effective use of this legislation to expose several irregularities particularly those relating to banking and educational institutions.
In Rajasthan a strong grassroots movement for right to information had emerged demanding the right to information. The most remarkable aspect of RTI use at grassroots in Rajasthan was the exposure of corruption in the use of rural development/relief funds at the village level and the organization of public hearing (jan sunwais) for this purpose.

In some villages this led to such a situation that elected representatives admitted corrupt places publicity and even agreed to return the money. This entire exercise of ‘jan sunwais’ was a very democratic effort in which almost the entire village community became involved at most places.

Some other organizations in Rajasthan followed the good work done by MKSS.

One of the most successful ones is the effort of Jagruk Nagrik Manch (helped by Urmul Jyoti Sansthan) in Nokha block of Bikaner district, Rajasthan. JNM claimed to have tackled effectively nearly 400 issues of corruption leading to the return of almost one million rupees to people who had been victims of corruption.

JNM also exposed a major fraud in the public distribution system as a result of which the corrupt dealer agreed to return all the ill-gotten money to the village community (whom he had swindled earlier) and also agreed to surrender his dealership.

If in 1990 there was very little support for RTI, by the time the legislation was discussed in Parliament in 2005, strong base for it was created

In Maharashtra earlier very weak legislation was enacted but sometime later – thanks partly to a movement launched by social activist Anna Hazare and his fast which attracted national attention – a highly progressive legislation was passed. Several persons like Sailesh Gandhi and Prakash Kardley made effective use of RTI to expose a wide range of irregularities. A case relating to files of police transfers and recommendations of politicians for these transfers attracted wide attention.

In Bharavan region of Hardoi district, Uttar Pradesh, an effort was started by villagers who started questioning why benefits of development funds were not reaching them. They were helped by activists of Asha Ashram, Lalpur, to use the tool of RTI as panchyat level. Despite several initial difficulties in obtaining information when relevant records of ten panchyat areas were received very high level of fraud was exposed.

In Badwani district of Madhya Pradesh benefits of drought relief work could not reach villagers in great need of this work as work was given to contractors who used big machines in gross violation of government’s directives aimed at maximising benefits to needy people. Adivasi Mukti Sangathan used RTI to get information which revealed that persons who were not even present in village were shown to have been employed. These cases were exposed at a public hearing organized in May 2003.

Earlier Commissioner of Bilaspur Division (Chattisgarh), Harsh Mander with the help of other officials and social activists introduced significant experimental work regarding right to information. These experiments clearly proved the effectiveness of right to information legislation, particularly in important areas like improving the public distribution system and reducing corruption.

In Meghalaya, a small but strong movement demanding RTI emerged, although no RTI legislation had been enacted so far in this state.

In the urban context good results using RTI were obtained by Parivartan and later by Satark Nagrik Sangathan organisations in Delhi. Several other organisations incorporated RTI in their work in slums and resettlement colonies of Delhi so that the message about the new legislation could reach more people. In fact a women’s organisation Jagriti Mahila Samiti was the first to take RTI’s message to slums and other colonies of Delhi.

Thus even before the passing of national-level RTI legislation in India there were many effective examples of using RTI for checking corruption and irregularities, using state-level or panchayat level laws or directives and these continued later. These efforts were strengthened when better, stronger RTI law was passed at the national level. Effective use of RTI started spreading quite rapidly in the country. Hence it is sad that recent neglect has led to the weakening of this law. This trend should be checked so that strong RTI remains a strength of India’s democracy.

*Former Convener, National Campaign on People’s Right to Information, has written several books, booklets and articles on India’s RTI experience

Courtesy: CounterView

The post Used for checking corruption, irregularities for 15 yrs, RTI being turned into ‘dead letter law’ appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Of a total of 1,15,203 complaints it received against Union government employees, the CVC said that 46,643 (~41%) were against home affairs ministry employees.

The railways sector was at a distant second with 10,580 (9%) complaints against its employees.“Banks” employees were a source of 8,129 complaints, the Delhi government of 7,370 and “Coal” of 4,304.

Interestingly, the CVC is an apex anti-corruption agency that oversees the vigilance administration of Union government organisations.

Established in the spirit that the “administration [cannot] be a judge of its own conduct”, the CVC is not controlled by any Union ministry and is responsible only to parliament.

Notably, among other functions, it provides ‘vigilance clearances’ to certain senior government officials and processes complaints against government employees, following which it communicates its advice on action to be taken in appropriate cases.

However, the commission said in its most recent annual report that there had been “significant deviations” or non-compliance with its advice.

“In some cases of officers covered under the Commission’s jurisdiction, either the prescribed consultation mechanism with the Commission was not adhered to, or the authorities concerned did not accept the Commission’s advice,” it stated in the report.

“Further, there have been instances where the advice tendered by the Commission has been substantially diluted without approaching the Commission for reconsideration of its advice, as per extant procedure,” it continued to say.

One example the CVC gave of improper following of procedure with its advice was the delaying of taking action against some delinquent officers.

“Some organisations take more than the prescribed time for implementation of Commission’s advice which includes delay in issuance of charge sheet. Sometimes, the delinquent officer is allowed to retire, and the misconduct becomes time barred for initiation of departmental action,” the watchdog said.

In one of the appendices to its annual report, the commission recorded the type of punishment that was given to government employees from various sectors following penalty proceedings in 2022.

As for the Union home affairs ministry, the commission said that the following punishments were given to its employees after major penalty proceedings:

Photo: cvc.gov.in

A majority of employees in these cases had no action taken against them, unspecified “major penalties” handed out, or were given warnings.

And the following are the results of minor proceedings against home affairs employees:

No action was taken against employees in the vast majority of minor penalty proceedings.

The Union home affairs ministry is currently led by BJP leader Amit Shah.

Related:

From our ancestors to modern leaders, all do it: the story of corruption

The post MHA officials top list of complaints received by Central Vigilance Commission appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Bengaluru: A 68-year-old environmentalist allegedly died by suicide over “corruption” in Public Distribution Shops (PDS) in Davanagere district of Karnataka on Tuesday.

Felicitated by the Karnataka government with Rajyotsava Award, the second highest civilian honor in the state, Veerachari had pledged that if justice is not delivered on the said issue, he will hang himself.

Agitated over the incident, nature lovers and local residents staged a protest and blocked the road. They demanded that the district commissioner should come to the spot and conduct a probe.

Harihara Rural police have rushed to the spot and are controlling the situation.

According to local residents, Veerachari has hung to the very tree that he planted and nursed over decades.

Earlier, Veerachari had claimed that food items in PDS shops were not being distributed to marginalised sections of society.

He had been protesting against the local ration shops for a long time and said that he would end his life if justice is not delivered. An audio about it has also gone viral.

He used to grace all programmes in the regions with four tree saplings and create awareness about increasing green cover. He had planted and grown thousands of trees for four decades.

Veerachari hailed from Middlakatte village. He used to run a goods auto for livelihood and in that vehicle, he carried tree saplings. He used to plant and distribute saplings wherever he went.

Courtesy: The Daily Sisat

The post Karnataka: Environmentalist allegedly died by suicide over ‘corruption’ in PDS appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Representational Image. Image Courtesy: NDTV

Bengaluru: In another blow to the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government, two associations representing at least 13,000 schools in Karnataka have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing the administration of corruption.

According to a report by NDTV, the Associated Managements of Primary And Secondary Schools and the Registered Unaided Private Schools Management Association have urged PM Modi to look into alleged bribes that are being demanded by the state education department to issue recognition certificates to educational institutions.

“Unscientific, irrational, discriminatory and noncompliance norms are applied to only unaided private schools and huge corruption is in place,” the letter read.

“The education ministry is impatient to listen and understand the actual pathetic situation of the whole system and resolve the issues. Two different BJP ministers literally caused lots of damage to budget schools rather than those schools that are commercialising education by allowing more and more investors to set up, directly costing more fees per child for parents,” the letter added.

The associations claimed that multiple complaints and pleas to state education minister BC Nagesh have gone unattended, and demanded his resignation.

The associations also alleged that government-prescribed textbooks have still not reached the schools despite the beginning of the new academic year.

“The education minister has no concern to liberalise the rigid norms and frame rules and regulation that both public and private schools can practically and physically implement without burdening parents and students,” read the complaint.

The school associations have urged PM Modi to look into the allegations and launch an investigation into the affairs of the Karnataka education ministry.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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Bengaluru: In a setback to the ruling BJP, the Lokayukta has initiated an investigation against Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra in connection with the allotment of a site to him by the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) in violation of rules, Lokayukta sources said on Saturday.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has recently announced that his government would give full powers to the Lokayukta as per the orders of the High Court.

In the complaint, AAP said the Supreme Court has orally reprimanded the Karnataka government’s policy to allot sites worth crores of rupees to Jnanendra and other influential leaders.

The allotment was made despite the fact that G category sites cannot be allotted as it gives room for corruption.

The state government on Friday transferred BDA Commissioner M B Rajesh Gowda in the wake of the Apex Court’s ruling.

Even though lakhs of families of the state have been left on the streets due to heavy rains for the last four years, the BJP government has failed to build suitable houses for them, but now the way in which they have allotted sites worth crores of rupees to their minister and influential leaders show another face of BJP government, alleged of taking 40 percent commission from contractors on all projects,” the AAP claimed.

“It is clear from this case that Home Minister Araga Jnanendra, who has destroyed the entire law and order in the state, has misused his power and is immersed in nepotism and corruption, Mohan Dasari, AAP Bengaluru Unit President, said.

State spokesperson and senior former K A S officer K Mathai stated that Araga Jnanendra should be dismissed from the Cabinet immediately or he should respectfully resign himself.

Courtesy: The Daily Siasat

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The Karnataka High Court has set aside a Government Order (GO) that had constituted an Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) as a parallel agency to the existing Karnataka Lokayukta. The court said that the said GO dilutes the independence of Lokayukta and defeats the very purpose for which the Karnataka Lokayukta was constituted.

Lokayuktas, at the state level, have the power to inquire into administrative actions, including cases of corruption, favouritism and official indiscipline in administrative machinery so that the standards of public administration can be improved. These are governed by the Karnataka Lokayukta Act, 1984.

Their independence is achieved by the appointment of those who are retired judges of the Hon’ble Supreme Court or retired Chief Justice of High Courts or a Judge of a High Court with not less than 10 years of experience for Lokayuktas and a person who has held the position of Judge of High Court for not less than 5 years for Upa Lokayuktas.

Although the appointment is to be done by the Chief Minister, it is to be done in consultation with the Opposition in both, the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly, as well as the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, the Speaker and the Chairman of the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council respectively.

Another parallel legislation regarding corruption is the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 which, under Section 17, grants powers to certain officers to investigate an offence without taking a warrant from the metropolitan magistrate; and grants the power to state government to authorise officers not below the rank of inspectors to have the said powers under Section 17.

In 1991, the Karnataka Government deputed some police officers to the Karnataka Lokayukta Department and authorised these police officers to investigate offences under Section 17. However, the Karnataka government, in 2016, passed an order revoking the powers to Lokayukta police that were granted under Section 17 and granting the same powers to a separate Anti-Corruption Bureau under the direct authority of the Chief Minister. A set of petitions were filed against this order and the court pronounced this judgement while deciding these petitions.

Arguments by the Petitioners

Petitioners argued that the Lokayukta was constituted so that there will exist an independent body which will investigate chief ministers and other government functionaries that usually run the system and therefore escape from its purview. If the ACB, which is directly under the Chief Minister is given the power under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988-that will only be an investigative agency in the hands of the chief minister rather than an independent one. Thus, the petitioners argued, the constitution of ACB by the state government laacks statutory force and should be set aside.

Arguments by the State

Apart from questioning the locus standi of the petitioners, the state argued that the 2016 order was to formalise the distribution of duties between Lokayukta and the police under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. It argued that the Lokayukta Police was never under the direct control of Lokayukta but was only lent by the State government to the Lokayukta for performance of functions and therefore there was no authority existing, that the 2016 order snatched away from Lokayukta.

Considerations of the Court

The Court has observed that there is no “careful application of mind” by the state government before passing the 2016 order except for following the recommendation of Director General and Inspector General of Police to constitute an ACB.

The court also observed that the ACB has not filed any complaints against any politicians and higher bureaucrats unlike the Lokayukta. The court stated that since ACB is under the direct control of the Chief Minister- it is unlikely that there will be an impartial investigation into any allegations against the chief minister and therefore, the ACB does not fare better than the Lokayukta.

“It is high time for the State Government to take necessary steps to ensure to reform the Lokayukta and to amend the provisions of the K.L. Act and abolish the ACB and the recommendation of the Lokayukta or Upa-Lokayukta should be binding on the Government,” observed the court.

While commenting on the comparison between ACB and Lokayukta, the court said, “The material on record clearly depicts after creation of ACB w.e.f 14.3.2016, ACB has not registered any criminal cases against the Ministers, MPs, MLAS or MLCs, but only registered few cases against some authorities and conducted raids. No material is produced by the Government or the ACB to prove that ACB is more powerful than Lokayukta for the purpose of improving the standards of public administration, by looking into complaints against administrative actions, including cases of corruption, favouritism and official indiscipline in administration machinery. Infact, creation of ACB is only to protect the vested interest and not 216 to protect the interest of the general public at large. It is high time for the State Government (any Government) or its authorities to act as a trustee of the society and infact, in all facets of public administration, every public servant has to exhibit honesty, integrity, sincerity and faithfulness in implementation of the political, social, economic and constitutional policies to integrate the nation, to achieve excellence and efficiency in the public administration.”

Finally, the court relied on the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s judgement in the case of C. Rangaswamaiah and others -vs Karnataka Lokayukta and others, in which the apex court stated that if officers that are allotted to Lokayukta Police are being recalled, the consent of Lokayukta needs to be taken. In this case, the 2016 order recalling the powers given to the Lokayukta officers was taken away without taking the consent of the Lokayukta.

The court thus quashed the order constituting the ACB and restored the powers that were previously there for the Lokayukta Police and stated that all pending proceedings under ACB will be transferred to Lokayukta.

The significance of this judgement is that the court has put its weight behind the independent body of Lokayukta against the state interference and reversed the state action. A great amount of importance has been given to the legislative purpose of the Lokayukta Act, 1988 by the judgement making it an important constituent of jurisprudence around executive action.

The complete order may be read here: 

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On Saturday, August 6, the Ayodhya Development Authority (ADA) released a list of illegal land traders, sending shockwaves across Uttar Pradesh. The list had 40 names including that of Ayodhya City Mayor Rishikesh Upadhyay, sitting MLA from the district’s Sadar constituency Ved Prakash Gupta, and former legislator from Milkipur constituency Gorakhnath Baba, reported Indian Express.

The list was signed by the Lekhpal of the ADA. “The list of 40 people who illegally bought land and got construction work done in the authority area was released Saturday night,” ADA Vice Chairman Vishal Singh told news agency Press Trust of India on Sunday.

However, in a subsequent interview to the Indian Express, he claimed, “List is premature and has been purposefully leaked, it seems. It’s wrong.”

A previous investigation by the publication in December last year, had revealed how Gupta’s nephew Tarun Mittal bought 5,174 sq m in Barhata Manjha on November 21, 2019, for Rs 1.15 crore. He had also bought 14,860 sq m in next-door Maheshpur (Gonda) across the river Saryu, nearly 5 km from the temple site, for Rs 4 crore on December 29, 2020, he bought. Upadhyay had bought 1,480 sq m on September 18, 2019, for Rs 30 lakh.

Upadhyay and Gupta, though, have denied any wrongdoing.

Ved Prakash Gupta told the publication, “The Lekhpal has no power to issue such a list. I have no role in any land deals.” Meanwhile, City Mayor Upadhyay said, “Such lists are released after proper investigation only. We have no role in any such illegal land deals.”

According to the Times of India, they are considering filing defamation charges against the ADA.

Not leaving the opportunity to take a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that is in power in the state, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav tweeted in Hindi saying, “We have said this before, we are saying it again… the corrupt people of the BJP should at least leave Ayodhya alone.”

हमने पहले भी कहा है फिर दोहरा रहे हैं… ‘भाजपा के भ्रष्टाचारी कम-से-कम अयोध्या को तो छोड़ दें।’ pic.twitter.com/n4ZD4mTF18

— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) August 7, 2022

The issue of illegal purchase and sale of land in Ayodhya was raised by grabbing and its illegal trade had been leaders from across party lines in the run up to the State Assembly elections held earlier this year. Lallu Singh, a BJP Member of Parliament from Faizabad, had written to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath demanding a probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the matter.

Meanwhile, Mahant Raju Das of the Hanumangiri temple, who is also a BJP leader, has demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the case, alleging that powerful members of the bureaucracy are also involved in the illegal land trade, but their names are missing from the list.

The above is significant in light of the Adityanath-led UP government’s crackdown on the so-called “land mafia” as well as encroachers on public land. In fact, a drive will begin soon in Varanasi, another temple town, to remove encroachments from government land to make space for developmental projects. According to the Times of India the Uttar Pradesh administration plans to register the encroachers as “land mafia”, and take “appropriate action” to free the occupied land. Varanasi District Magistrate (DM) Kaushal Raj Sharma had told the publication last week, that head of various departments in the municipality, tehsils, as well as the irrigation and Public Works Department (PWD) have been asked to update their property registers with details of encroachments and encroachers by August 10. He also said that in case they failed to do so, “departments heads will be held accountable,” and that the “anti-land mafia drive will be intensified in the district.”

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Background of mining in Goa:

Before merger of Goa with India, several mining concessions had been granted by the erstwhile Portuguese government to several persons/companies for extracting minerals and such concessions were in perpetuity. After Goa’s merger with India came the Mines and Mineral Development Act, 1957 as well as the Goa, Daman and Diu Mining Concessions (Abolition and Declaration as Mining Leases) Act, 1987.

Background of the case

The Goa Foundation in its Writ petition before the Supreme Court had raised the issue of illegal mining in Goa and the court had held that the mining leases had expire in November 2007 and all mining and sale of mineral ore from then was illegal.

Further, Supreme Court also quashed a High Court order that allowed the renewal of certain mining leases but did not initiate investigation against the government department respondents under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Hence the Goa Foundation approached the Goa Lokayukta for inquiry against Laxmikant Parsekar (former Minister of Mines, Goa), Pawan Kumar Sain (former Secretary of Mines, government of India), Prasanna Acharya (Director of Mines and Geology, Goa) and the government of Goa.

The case of the complainant

As per the Goa Foundation, the respondents approved the renewal of several mining leases despite of being cognizant of the Central government ordinance, which was in the offing, which allowed grant of iron ore leases only by way of auction. The renewals were approved just before the ordinance was promulgated and assented to by the then President of India. The Goa Foundation alleges that the en masse approvals amounted to missed and abuse of position by the respondents to confer illegal benefits on several erstwhile mining lease holders thereby causing huge loss to the government exchequer.

The respondents contended that their decision was on the basis of the judgment of the Bombay High Court which had allowed renewals of leases in cases where stamp duty already been paid. They further contended that just because their decision was deemed to be illegal, it doesn’t mean they had committed any offence.

Findings of the Lokayukta

The Lokayukta held that the peculiar circumstances under which there was en masse renewal of the mining leases, in a great hurry within a span of about one wee is a grave incriminating circumstance against the respondents which needs an explanation.

The Lokayukta questioned the respondents as to why the renewals were not carried out within the period of 3 months granted by the Bombay High Court in its August 2014 judgements, which the respondents claimed to have followed for avoiding contempt proceedings. These renewals were issued much later in January 2015.

“The important question arises as to why did the respondents suddenly wake up from their deep slumber on or after 5^th January 215 and why on 12^th January 2015 itself, 31 files which were gathering dust were suddenly resurrected from their moribund condition, similarly typed noted were hastily prepared and signed by the Respondent No. 3 and approved by the other two respondents without even accurately reflecting the relevant facts in many such filed, conveniently ignoring the fact that the mandatory requirements of obtaining opinion of the IBM (Indian Bureau of Mining) as mandated under Rule 24-A had not been fulfilled and also ignoring the fact that allegations relating to violation of rule 37 were under inquiry,” said the Lokayukta.

Further it held that the respondents were aware of the amendments proposed by the central government to the MMDR Act in November 2014 and one would have expected that they would wait till the amendments were finally made. It further observed that the cabinet decision with regards to the amendment came on January 5, 2015 and the Ordinance was promulgated on January 12 and between January 5 and January 12, the respondents approved renewals of 56 mining leases.

The Lokayukta held that the renewals were granted without waiting for the approval from IBM and the respondents did not offer any explanation for this hurry  under the pretext that the High Court judgment operated as a mandamus for renewal of leases, while that was not the case. Referring to the undue haste the Lokayukta said, “Only an ostrich with its head deeply buried in the pristine sand of Arabian sea can say that the overnight renewals at a speed faster than that of the fastest jaguar… had been routinely done in course of official transactions without any iota of any malafide intention”.

The Lokayukta held that it is futile to expect any direct evidence on the pecuniary benefit gained by a public officer for doing something illegal but the lack of good faith is apparent in this case. The Lokayukta held, “Though it is impossible to prove that they themselves had received any pecuniary advantage, it is apparent that they had abused their official position to confer huge benefit on some of the mining lease holders. I consider it a fit case where it should be declared that such persons should not continue to hold office held by them.” The Lokayukta also derived that they acted in conspiracy and hence are also liable for prosecution under the section 13(1)(d) pf the Prevention of Corruption Act and directed the state government to register an FIR against them.

The Lokayukta also directed the government to hand over the investigation under the FIR to an independent agency like the CBI while it called out the reluctance of the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Goa, to act against influential people.

The Lokayukta order dated January 20, 2020 may be read here.

This order, dated January 20, 2020 was not followed through as expected the matter once again came before the Lokayukta who considered the Action Taken Report (ATR) filed by the Governor Goa which said that the decision of the Lokayukta was rejected basis the opinion of Advocate General. The Lokayukta dismissed the report and deemed that the opinion of the Advocate General, which was not supplied to the Lokayukta, seemed to have been based on half baked ideas and incomplete and cursory reading of the Goa Lokayukta Act. While considering each point of the ATR, the Lokayukta explained the various sections of the Act, in this Special Report under section 16(3) of the Goa Lokayukta Act.

The Lokayukta noted, “The non-acceptance of the report is on the expected line, given the usual attitude of protecting the privileged matter without discerning the relevant materials in their proper perspective.” The Lokayukta said that if the respondents are able to give  single reason why the 31 files were “suddenly resurrected” on January 12, 2015 in complete disregard of the laws in place, he will recall the entire report on its own accord and instead recommend for conferring appropriate honour on the respondents for remarkable efficiency.

In this special report, the Lokayukta concluded by reiterating its January 20 order and directed that this report be placed before the state Assembly as provided for in the Goa Lokayukta Act.

The Lokayukta order dated May 27, 2020 may be read here.

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