Congress: PM failed to enforce Lokpal

The Congress on Monday asked why the Modi government is failing to enforce the Lokpal Act even 24 months after coming to power while questioning the BJP’s anti-corruption claims.

“The Prime Minister gives lectures on corruption, yet has done nothing on his promise to enforce the Lokpal Act,” party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters, accusing the government of keeping mum on the matter for long. Mr Singhvi, who was the chairman of a parliamentary select committee which went into the Lokpal Bill, lamented that the Act is not being implemented despite it being in the statute book.

“There is no office of Lokpal, no person appointed to the post and no word about when it is going to be implemented,” he said, pitching for a “credible, operational and real Lokpal”.

Targeting the government, he said one should learn from it as to how to make an existing law “inoperative and impotent”. He said this has been done by a government and a party which wore “anti-corruption on its sleeve”.

He also took a dig at the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi over the issue, saying his criticism of the Centre was “equally applicable” on the AAP dispensation.

He said that the BJP leaders and ministers have time and again spoken about “zero tolerance on corruption” but have “conveniently overlooked” enforcing the Lokpal Act.

Suggesting that there was a pattern in this, he said when Mr Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, he never enforced the Lokayukta Act in the state.

Condemning the delay in enforcing the Lokpal Act, he said there was “a method in the madness” as the politics of attacking opponents in Parliament with innuendos and insinuations could suffer once the ombudsman is in place as they would not be able to make “outlandish allegations”.