HVK Archives: Farcical Lok Pal - an editorial
Farcical Lok Pal - an editorial - The Economic Times
Editorial
()
19 September 1996
Title : Farcical Lok Pal
Author : Editorial
Publication : The Economic Times
Date : September 19, 1996
The Lok Pal as envisaged in the Bill introduced in Par-
liament last week is a complete waste of time. It does
not give the Lok Pal the power to prosecute any politi-
cian it finds guilty; it can only recommend to a compet-
ent authority its finding. As such, the proposed Lok Pal
offers no remedy for the basic failing in the present
justice system: the absence of a prosecutor independent
of the whims of the ruling politician. If this omission
makes the proposed body redundant, several of its pro-
posed characteristics make it positively obnoxious. To
begin with, the Bill seeks to bar any public reporting of
the working,of the Lok Pal. The complaint, the complain-
ant, the accused - the press is debarred from communicat-
ing to the public any information on any of these. This
defeats a fundamental purpose of having an ombudsman -
the pressure of public opinion arising from institutional
scrutiny of a politician's betrayal of public trust. In
fact, the Lok Pal can summarily try and punish any jour-
nalist who contravenes this provision. The Lok Pal can
similarly try and punish people who, in its opinion,
insult or interrupt the august body. It can further
prosecute those who make any complaint which the Lok Pal
holds to be false. In other words, the Lok Pal has a lot
of teeth when it comes to people who try to expose cor-
ruption in high places, but none at all when it comes to
the corrupt themselves.
The Bill makes the Lok Pal toothless in other ways as
well. Its effectiveness depends on the quality of the
information it receives. The Bill excludes public serv-
ants from the category of potential complainants, thereby
ruling out one rich source of relevant information on
official corruption. This abstinence is reinforced by
the stipulation that the complaint has to be made in
specified form and format along with deposits of earnest
money (except when the complaint comes from the jail or a
lunatic asylum). The Lok Pal is empowered to requisition
information, but the information can be held back if a
secretary to the government certifies that it would
interfere with the investigation of a crime or reveal
Cabinet proceedings. Premeditation at the level of the
Cabinet or being subjected to interminable investigation
would take corruption outside the reach of the Lok Pal.
We need not this paper tiger but an agency that can
independently investigate and prosecute erring politi-
cians.
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