Apex court shows the way, Centre must walk it
The Supreme Court of India has offered a wonderful opening to the Union Government for the speedy appointment of a lokpal, and the Centre must seize upon it without delay. In a significant ruling on Thursday, the court said that the absence of a leader of Opposition (loP) in the lok Sabha need not come in the way of having a lokpal in place. Until now, the Modi Government had maintained its inability to go through the process due to this obstacle, although it did assure that ways were being considered to overcome the unforeseen circumstance. A Bench of the apex court, while hearing two sets of petitions on the matter, said that members of the selection committee can nominate an “eminent jurist” and go ahead with the selection of a lokpal. Given that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his team have been taking a spate of measures to enhance accountability and transparency in the functioning of public sector organisations, and the Government too, the speedy appointment of a lokpal will fit into the scheme of things. Besides, it will send out a strong political message that the Modi regime means business when it comes to containing graft in high places. It must be remembered that the Bharatiya Janata Party has for long, and especially in the run-up to the 2014 lok Sabha election, positioned itself as a party with a difference. The Modi Government came to power primarily because people were fed up of the corruption-ridden Congress-led UPA regime. It's time for the Government to now walk the talk. More than two-and-a-half years have gone since it assumed office, and the establishment of a lokpal is its litmus test. There is no reason why it should not move forward with alacrity, given that it has nothing to lose and everything to gain. The previous regime had dragged its feet on the issue and paid a price for it. The Aam Aadmi Party's rise is attributed to social activist Anna Hazare's pro-lokpal and anti-corruption movement. While the Congress is down in the dumps and the AAP stands discredited in public eye, the time is ripe, from a political sense, for the BJP to go for the kill. If it follows up on the Supreme Court's directive with sincerity, it will lethally silence its detractors and strengthen its image among the masses.
The Government might have been circumspect so far for fear of being accused of authoritarianism and misusing its massive majority in the lok Sabha if it had to push for the lokpal without a loP. This may explain why it agreed to send the recommendations for a change in the lokpal Act to meet the new situation of the loP's absence, to a parliamentary panel. This did make sense because the amendments need bipartisan approval. But here too, the apex court has shown the way. It said that the Act as it stood was implementable even this very moment and that it need not be kept in abeyance while the parliamentary process was on. It's time we had the much anticipated lokpal.