4 Feb,2013

Lokayukta amendments a fresh challenge
In passing the Goa Lokayukta amendments the government has predictably invited the full-on ire of many concerned citizens and anti-corruption activists. The Goa unit of the anti-graft organisation India Against Corruption has been the most vocal and detailed in its criticisms, and the IAC set the ball rolling by publicly asking the Goa governor not to give his assent to the amendments and seek a clarification from the announced Lokayukta appointee if any request, as stated by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, was indeed made by the former to include the amendment which finds place as section 16A in the Lokayukta Act passed by the assembly. Other voices too have asked the governor not to give his assent to the Lokayukta Act with the amendments introduced by the government.
The IAC not only wants the government to revoke the amendments but call a special session of the house to do so, and in the interim issue an ordinance putting the amendments suggested by it to make the Lokayukta stronger in place. The argument is that the government should adhere to its pre-poll promise and make amendments that would empower, not impede, the Goa Lokayukta. The Uttarakhand Lokayukta Bill is being held up as the model. Pointing to contradictions in promises made in the past, the IAC has lodged its objections regarding the “non-transparent” manner in which the amendments were passed without “consultation with civil society.” Clearly, the Goa chief minister has a fight on his hands. The IAC is also peeved over the CM’s statements against Justice Hegde and the war of words over Hedge’s criticisms of the Lokayukta amendments as reported in this newspaper may yet escalate.
Watching events is the Opposition Congress one of whose leaders ~ perhaps not incorrectly ~ pointed out that the BJP’s three major poll planks of illegal mining, RP 2021 and law and order were coming back to haunt it. To that, any observer of the political climate in Goa would add a fourth ~ the corruption plank.  With the IAC now giving every indication that it would not let matters be, the government ought to respond. Arguments rather than abuse on either side, however, should be the focus. It is no secret that the politics of a political party in Opposition are far removed from the compulsions of a ruling party. And that is what the Congress in Goa ~ that faced the sharp sting and shrapnel of criticism when it was in power not so long ago ~ is abstaining from directly saying for the moment. In the short time it has been in power, the BJP regime has had to watch each of these thorny issues, on which it relentlessly pilloried the Congress in the past, come to a head.
On mining, it has not helped the government’s cause that while it now pegs the illegal mining losses at Rs 4000-5000 crore, the Opposition is unlikely to forget that its leaders in New Delhi had accused it of presiding over a Rs 10,000 crore illegal mining scam. And this is to say nothing of the Rs 35,000 crore figure estimated by Justice MB Shah in his report and this figure is set to rise exponentially once the last part of his report is compiled. On the RP 2021, the government has said it is unwilling to venture into a complete overhaul unless the illegal mining issue was first settled. As for law and order, commentators have already begun pointing to the constant pillorying of the previous government on the law and order situation by the BJP when it was in Opposition and its changed tune now that matters are far from placid on the safety and security front and it is in power.
The unsaid message is that while it is easy to heap relentless criticism when in Opposition, it is another matter to deliver on one’s own high expectations when in power. As politics gets ever more combative, and the workings of democracy in India progressively lose even the veneer of decency and dialogue, belligerence and bellicosity have become the unfortunate norms in public life aided by the spectator sport that politics has now become on television talk shows.
But the inevitable question, increasingly being asked by a growing middle class educated electorate, will be: How different are the two main parties? Whilst Parrikar still seems to retain the goodwill of a large section of the electorate that voted his party in resoundingly, for the government in Goa the time span between expectations not being met and the setting in of public disillusionment appears to be shrinking. All governments face challenges and it would perhaps be fair to say that this one has had a greater share of challenges to deal with in a shorter period of time than its predecessors. For the present, much will depend on how the government reacts to the criticism of its amendments to the Lokayukta Bill.