Is the Modi Govt serious about fighting corruption?? Firstpost
Is the Narendra Modi government as earnest about eliminating corruption as it claims? Actions over the past few days have only added to the persisting doubts about its intents.
The removal of Sanjeev Chaturvedi the chief vigilance officer of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) a day after Modi's observation that corruption was a bigger disease than cancer has set tongues wagging within the ruling party too. Chaturvedi had unearthed many cases of corruption in the premier institution. Health Minister Harsh Vardhan who enjoys a good reputation for his integrity did not have any convincing reason to offer for the CVO's removal.
Of greater concern is the government's refusal to have a leader of the opposition. The position is important as the committee that selects the Lokpal members must include the Leader of the Opposition along with the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of India. The Lokpal's nine members are meant to include four former or serving judges. It took the Chief Justice of India to remind the government about it. Political expediency could drive the government to amend laws either to dilute the selection norms for the leader of the opposition or for the formation of the committee. The other option is to leave it to the opposition to choose its leader.
Around this time three years ago, on one man's bidding, nearly 800 members of the nation's Parliament held a special session and by one voice promised strong measures to bridle corruption by appointing an all-powerful Lokpal. Anna Hazare's 288-hour fast went down as a watershed moment in the nation's history. The Congress-led UPA government which needlessly prolonged the stalemate on the issue showed some grace to accept its discomfiture and create a win-win situation for both the government and the civil society. Corruption was bound to sink the Congress, and sink it did. But, how earnest is the successor regime over the need for such institution?
The omnipotent Lokpal as visualised then is consigned to history too. Now the decision on the appointment of the ombudsman rests with the man whose contempt for the institutions is well known. The new prime minister not only avoided the appointment of an ombudsman for best part of his 14 long years as Gujarat chief minister but made a governor pay for her audacity to impose one on the state. With its selective memory the BJP can remember to act only on the non-BJP governments. While it was quick to demand a CBI inquiry into the alleged corruption in the examination scam in Uttar Pradesh it has staved off all efforts to get the CBI to look into a gigantic scandal In the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh.
The Lokayukta commanded considerable respect in the 1980s in Madhya Pradesh. It is now a butt of jokes for its inefficiency in dealing with high-level corruption. The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government has been accused of abusing the institution to steamroll the opposition. At the last count the state Lokayukta had handed clean chits to eight of the 11 ministers accused of corruption. The other cases are pending. The government recently sought to extend the tenure of the Lokayukta from five to seven years. The current incumbent, PP Naolekar, got a conditional extension. For now it would be for one year or till his successor takes charge. Ignoring the rules the Chouhan cabinet decided to amend section 5 of the Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta and Up-Lokayukta Act 1981 allowing up to seven years term to the Lokayukta. In effect, however, Naolekar stays on probation now onward.
The government did not consult the collegium that appoints the Lokayukta. The collegium comprises the chief minister, the leader of Opposition and the chief justice of the Jabalpur High Court. The Lokayukta thus gets an extension from the very government whose corruption he is to investigate.
The development in MP is just an example and it reflects a pattern in the BJP's approach to corruption. Modi needs to prove he is serious and he must go beyond mere lip service. more
The removal of Sanjeev Chaturvedi the chief vigilance officer of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) a day after Modi's observation that corruption was a bigger disease than cancer has set tongues wagging within the ruling party too. Chaturvedi had unearthed many cases of corruption in the premier institution. Health Minister Harsh Vardhan who enjoys a good reputation for his integrity did not have any convincing reason to offer for the CVO's removal.
Of greater concern is the government's refusal to have a leader of the opposition. The position is important as the committee that selects the Lokpal members must include the Leader of the Opposition along with the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of India. The Lokpal's nine members are meant to include four former or serving judges. It took the Chief Justice of India to remind the government about it. Political expediency could drive the government to amend laws either to dilute the selection norms for the leader of the opposition or for the formation of the committee. The other option is to leave it to the opposition to choose its leader.
Around this time three years ago, on one man's bidding, nearly 800 members of the nation's Parliament held a special session and by one voice promised strong measures to bridle corruption by appointing an all-powerful Lokpal. Anna Hazare's 288-hour fast went down as a watershed moment in the nation's history. The Congress-led UPA government which needlessly prolonged the stalemate on the issue showed some grace to accept its discomfiture and create a win-win situation for both the government and the civil society. Corruption was bound to sink the Congress, and sink it did. But, how earnest is the successor regime over the need for such institution?
The omnipotent Lokpal as visualised then is consigned to history too. Now the decision on the appointment of the ombudsman rests with the man whose contempt for the institutions is well known. The new prime minister not only avoided the appointment of an ombudsman for best part of his 14 long years as Gujarat chief minister but made a governor pay for her audacity to impose one on the state. With its selective memory the BJP can remember to act only on the non-BJP governments. While it was quick to demand a CBI inquiry into the alleged corruption in the examination scam in Uttar Pradesh it has staved off all efforts to get the CBI to look into a gigantic scandal In the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh.
The Lokayukta commanded considerable respect in the 1980s in Madhya Pradesh. It is now a butt of jokes for its inefficiency in dealing with high-level corruption. The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government has been accused of abusing the institution to steamroll the opposition. At the last count the state Lokayukta had handed clean chits to eight of the 11 ministers accused of corruption. The other cases are pending. The government recently sought to extend the tenure of the Lokayukta from five to seven years. The current incumbent, PP Naolekar, got a conditional extension. For now it would be for one year or till his successor takes charge. Ignoring the rules the Chouhan cabinet decided to amend section 5 of the Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta and Up-Lokayukta Act 1981 allowing up to seven years term to the Lokayukta. In effect, however, Naolekar stays on probation now onward.
The government did not consult the collegium that appoints the Lokayukta. The collegium comprises the chief minister, the leader of Opposition and the chief justice of the Jabalpur High Court. The Lokayukta thus gets an extension from the very government whose corruption he is to investigate.
The development in MP is just an example and it reflects a pattern in the BJP's approach to corruption. Modi needs to prove he is serious and he must go beyond mere lip service. more
Viewed by 14
Please read this: Modi and his commitment to fighting corruption Call it Gestapo or the prying big brother; call it whatever you will. But the fact is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is walking his talk on a crusade against corruption, which he publicly reiterated in his Kargil rally on 12 August when he said: 'na khaoonga, na khane doonga (won't take bribe, won't let others take)'. He has already unleashed the cat among the pigeons, so to say, by making it clear to all his ministers, bureaucrats and government servants alike that his supreme template of governance is zero tolerance on corruption. Here is a pithy compendium of Modi's latest diktats and moves, most of which you would perhaps be getting to know for the first time. * CCTVs in Ministries The Modi government has embarked upon a never-before move of installing closed circuit televisions (CCTVs) in major central ministries. The first in the line is the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the cash-rich ministry where deals, orders and contracts worth billions are commonplace. The proposal to install CCTVs in the petroleum ministry's headquarters in New Delhi's Shastri Bhavan has just been cleared and it will be a matter of days or weeks until all the CCTVs are in place. And this is an informal pilot project. More ministries will have such CCTVs in future. The Defence ministry should also be in this list. * Ministries to Make Cabinet Notes Under PMO Directions Another unprecedented decision that the Modi government is quietly pushing is that the union ministries will no longer prepare cabinet notes about their future plans on their own. Rather, under the new scheme of things, the ministries will be required to consult the Prime Minister's Office and wait for PMO instructions for drafting cabinet notes about their functioning and future plans. Thus far, the ministries have been routinely preparing cabinet notes for consideration by the union cabinet. Henceforth, the ministries will be divested on this privilege and micro-managed by the PMO, even on the issue of preparation of cabinet notes. * DAVP's Advertisements to Newspapers in Last Ten Years Under Scanner The Information and Broadcasting ministry's Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) has also come under the PMO's scrutiny. The DAVP has been told to submit to the PMO, all information and data about the advertisements it has given to media outfits in the past ten years. The PMO wants to know how much government money was pumped into which media outfits in the past decade (read the UPA tenure). The idea is to regulate the pumping of government money in media outfits by way of advertisements which has kept these entities financially afloat. This is bad news for media outfits, including several major mainline newspapers, which have survived mainly on account of government doles in the form of advertisements. At least two major English dailies would be directly affected and may face closure if government advertisements were to dry up for these. One of the affected newspapers is a prominent English daily which has been pro-BJP in its editorial orientation and patronized by a tall leader of the BJP who is no longer in Modi's scheme of things. * Ministers Are Constantly Under Watch Union ministers are constantly under the watch of PM Modi. More importantly, they have been given rude jolts from time to time to remind them that they are under watch. Consider these two examples. One minister was breaking bread in a five star hotel in New Delhi with a top industrial magnate who is known to be very close to PM Modi. During the course of his meal, the minister gets a call from the PM himself, inquiring whether the meal was over. It was a brief call and no directions were issued But the message was driven home and the minister quickly wrapped up his meeting and headed back to office. Another minister was happily going to the Indira Gandhi International airport for his maiden foreign trip a couple of months ago, dressed in jeans. He had barely driven for about a kilometer and a half when he got a call on his mobile from the PM himself. The PM casually inquired where he was headed to and the minister gently reminded him about his foreign trip which had been duly cleared by the government. But he was flabbergasted when Modi chided him for wearing jeans and told him that as a public servant he would be under people's gaze in India as well as abroad and may be criticized for his choice. As the line went dead, the befuddled minister ordered his driver to take the car back to his residence where he quickly changed into the traditional kurta-pyjama and proceeded with his foreign trip. In fact, such is the mortal fear of PM Modi that ministers and top bureaucrats have stopped using their personal mobile phones for their very private conversations. Instead, they have started using the phones of their drivers and aides for such conversations as these phones are ‘safe'. more
Aug 23
