Modi in a hurry over lokayukta

The fact that the Gujarat state Assembly has sent the Lokayukta Bill back to governor Kamla Beniwal without taking into account her objections and making amendments proves that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi seems to be in a hurry to have things his way and appoint a lokayukta at the earliest. The governor thus now has little options but to either give her consent to the Bill or send it to the President. The BJP, sources claim, sees this as a huge political opportunity to target the Congress as Ms Beniwal is a former senior Congress leader from Rajasthan. Even in the past, the BJP has launched a scathing attack on both Ms Beniwal and the Congress accusing them of playing partisan politics over the contentious issue of appointing the lokayukta. “This is a smart move by Modi. Now that the Assembly has cleared the same Bill to be sent back to the governor, Modi will start targeting the Congress saying that though he is serious of tackling corruption the Congress or Centre’s representatives are stopping him from doing so,” a senior member of a rights group in Ahmedabad pointed out. In fact, Ms Beniwal had gone ahead and appointed Justice Mehta as the lokayukta in 2011 despite serious reservations by the state government. In fact, the Gujarat government had challenged the appointment both in the high court as well as the Supreme Court. But both courts ruled in favour of the governor but despite this the Modi government issued notification regarding appointment of Justice Mehta as the lokayukta. Justice Mehta eventually resigned in August 2013 criticising the role of the state government. The governor had also objected to a provision in the bill that says the state government can choose to accept or reject a lokayukta report. She said this defeats the basic purpose of an independent probe. But all objections raised by the governor have been ignored by the state.