Over the past few days, the state of Karnataka witnessed a brutal public murder. With every front-page story detailing the sequence of events, people’s hope in institutions dropped further. It was the murder of the dream to have a corruption-free government. The longing for an effective and honest Lokpal or Lokayukta is in tatters. The Karnataka Lokayukta, an institution which was set up to fight corruption in government is entangled in the exact situation it was expected to prevent.
The Lokayukata’s son, Ashwin Rao, stands accused of misusing his father’s authority to blackmail officers to pay up, casting a cloud of suspicion over the Lokayukta Justice Y Bhaskar Rao himself. The Upalokayukta Subash B Adi is up in arms against his boss and has ordered an inquiry to be headed by SP Sonia Narang. The state government stepped and constituted a Special Investigation Team. But, the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday stayed the inquiry being conducted by Narang, on a petition by Ashwin Rao.
Hyper Super Lokpal and an Endless Road
In 2011, India was witness to the massive ‘India Against Corruption’ movement spearheaded by Anna Hazare and others. Their main demand was to create independent institutions, the Lokpal at the centre, and a Lokayukta in each state, to tackle corruption. The movement got immense support from the masses and was in line with popular sentiments. But at the same time a section of the civil society argued against a populist move and asked, if the Lokpal or Lokayukta also turned corrupt, who would take action against the official?
Nitin Pai, the founder of Takshashila Institution, had then argued that establishing Lokayukta is not just unnecessary, but would in fact make the problem worse. He had said that adding more layers to “an already complex system will make the system even more complicated” would provide “incentives” for corruption.
Maybe we need a Super Lokpal, and then a Hyper Lokpal to watch over the Super Lokpal and so on…This isn’t sarcasm, this is the logical extension of the Lokpal argument.
— Nitin Pai, Founder of Takshashila Institution
The current situation in the state takes us back to the unanswered questions of 2011. Does this mean that the institution Lokpal or Lokayukta are merely smokescreens in a system which simply cannot get rid of its deep-rooted corruption?
Justice Santosh Hegde disagrees. He says that an institution as a whole cannot fall victim to corruption but an individual can.
Present controversy is because one of one person’s greed. Lokayukta in Karnataka is 30 years old and had five other Lokpals, but there was no complaint. But one person has brought the institution to disgrace.
— Justice Santosh Hegde, Former Lokayukta
The allegations against the body have jolted the faith imposed by the people, he admits. “Damage has been done, but it does not defeat the purpose of establishing Lokayukta or Lokpal,” says the former Lokayukta.
After Justice Hegde stepped down from his position in 2011, he was replaced by Justice Shivraj Patil as the new ombudsman. However, he was forced to resign within a month after assuming charge, following allegations that he had been allotted a plot in a housing society for judicial employees illegally.
After that, the position of the Lokayukta was kept vacant for several months until the then Governor H R Bhardwaj appointed the incumbent Justice Bhaskar Rao to the post. But even as Rao took oath, he was accused of the same illegality that Patil was. Despite protests, the state government and governor went ahead with the appointment, hushing up the issue.
In his article in The Hindu, TM Veeraraghav sums the situation with pithy. “Reality is that India has often excelled at turning critical institutions into romantic illusions with nothing but a glorious history, why should the office of one of the oldest Lokayuktas in the country be any different?” he asks. The premise of the rhetorical question could not be any closer to the truth.
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