The lack of seriousness that the BJP government attaches to crucial constitutional posts like the Lok ayukta and the Chief Information Commissioner and his State informational Commissioners should surprise no one. The government, which came to power with its promise of ending graft, has become one of its more tacit protectors. Therefore the petition moved by the Goa RTI forum asking for the position of a Goa State Information Commissioner and a Lokayukta to be filled up hasn’t come a day too soon. And it is a bit of a shame really, that the Goa government will have to be asked to do by court, what the ruling party had promised to do, to the people of the state when they went to look for votes during the 2013 assembly election.
Inquiries against police and administrative officers have piled up but never concluded and officers punished. Institutions like the Lokayukta have been undermined from the very beginning of Manohar Parrikar’s tenure. The only Lokayukta, Justice Reddy resigned after a very short tenure way back on October 13, 2013. One and a half years later, his replacement has not been found. Nor is there any inkling to do so. The institution exists on paper and so does a skeleton staff. But the Lokayukta office at Altinho less than 100 meters from the Chief Minister’s official residence, has very little to do with a few case papers gathering dust and no new ones coming in since there is no Lokayukta.
No one is complaining though. Least of all the MLAs who had been asked to submit a fresh list of all their assets and wealth. Justice Reddy’s resignation came in the middle of this process. Since then, no one has spoken about his.
Similarly the offices of the Chief Information Commissioner and his State information Commissioners are literally defunct. It is appalling that not a single MLA has raised the pitch on this issue, aimed at complete transparency in administrative functioning.
It is indeed tempting to brand this attitude of the government as a sign of inefficiency. It is actually a sign of absolute efficiency of doing lip service to the mantra of transparency by pretending to respect institutions of the CIC and Lokayukta, but in actually doing everything to stall their functioning. If Goa does not have a Lokayukta or Chief and State Information Commissioners, it is not due to apathy but design. It’s a clear plan to have a system where information dissemination is blocked and Institutions to prevent graft are choked.
The RTI Forum’s stellar move thus needs to be backed. This cannot be a fight by a handful of individuals who are in reality fighting our cause. We can show our support to this petition through a signature drive which can be added to the petition. Social organisations can pledge support, by filing supplementary petitions of Intervention Applications. Lawyer’s forums and collectives should get activated to file parallel petitions or join this one.
After all, the fight against corruption and the fight for transparency and access to information are public fights, which the BJP government promised to fight for us. A paragraph from the petition filed by the RTI Forum is a damning slap on the ruling party which has failed us “The GSIC has become defunct and Goa Lokayukta is also not filled, thereby making it impossible to get information from government offices and taking benefit that no Lokayukta is placed, corruption in government departments has increased”.
Three years after the people of Goa’s gave the BJP a full majority, this is its report card. This government is now known for protecting the corrupt when the promise was to have zero tolerance to corruption.
