Lok Ayukta | In Kerala, the Left government is drawing its own iron curtain

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan (File image)

In 2016, while facing the assembly elections in Kerala, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) assured the voters in its manifesto that “to ensure an unadulterated civil service and uncorrupted public activity, comprehensive changes will be made in Prevention of Corruption Act, and the Kerala Lok Ayukta Act.”

True to its till-then electoral behaviour of alternating governments between the LDF and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), Kerala voted out the Oommen Chandy government, and handed the LDF a clear victory with 91 of the 140 assembly seats.

Pinarayi Vijayan became Chief Minister, and the Lok Ayukta Act was untouched — but only till corruption allegations were raised against him and ministers in his Cabinet. Once the heat was on, the LDF decided to clip the wings of the parliamentary ombudsman. After all, in April 2021 a minister in Vijayan’s Cabinet had to resign after the Lok Ayukta found him guilty of nepotism in appointing a relative to a welfare corporation.

Despite this, the Vijayan government won eight more seats in the 2021 assembly polls, and on February 7 an ordinance was brought to cut down the powers of the Lok Ayukta.

Now, as the ordinance was soon expiring, and with little hope of the governor extending it, on August 23 the government introduced The Kerala Lok Ayukta (Amendment) Bill in the assembly.

After long hours of debate, the assembly forwarded the Bill to a subject committee for more discussions. During this debate, Opposition Leader VD Satheesan said that amending Section 14 should be seen as violating the powers of the judiciary. Meanwhile, Kerala’s Law Minister P Rajeev said that Lok Ayukta is not a judicial body, but only a probing one.

What’s The Change?

Section 14 of The Kerala Lok Ayukta Act, 1999, states that if the Lok Ayukta “is satisfied that the complaint involving an allegation against the public servant is substantiated” and the public servant should not continue in office, the Lok Ayukta can make a declaration to that effect, where “the competent authority is the Governor, the Government of Kerala or the Chief Minister, he or it shall accept the declaration. In other cases, the competent authority concerned shall send a copy of such report to the Government, which shall accept the declaration.”

The Left government wants to change the wordings “shall send a copy” to “may either accept or reject”, thereby limiting the power of the Lok Ayukta. Its argument is that in its existing form, the provision is unconstitutional.

Watering down this provision will help a Chief Minister ‘protect’ his ministers if and when found to be guilty by the Lok Ayukta.

Undoing Past Good Deeds

Interestingly, in 1999, the Bill had in Section 13 stated that “a competent authority, including state governor and chief minister, may either accept or reject the declaration made by the Lok Ayukta.”

However, after around 11 hours of discussion in the assembly on February 22, 1999, it was decided to go with the wording “shall accept the declaration” in the Act.

Interestingly, while debating the Bill, then Chief Minister EK Nayanar was not satisfied with the Bill’s effectiveness, and despite dissent from the UDF which was in the Opposition, Nayanar wanted to give it more teeth to eradicate corruption.

“Both sides (ruling and opposition) have talked about the Bill. I welcome it. But I feel it is incomplete. We must strengthen it. There is political corruption in society. To provide fair governance, we must remove political corruption, and a tool (Act) like this is needed. Let us pass this Bill now, and strengthen it further,” Nayanar said at the assembly on February 22, 1999 (quote translated from Malayalam by the author).

It’s an interesting anecdote that Vijayan was a minister in the Nayanar Cabinet between 1996 and 1998, until he resigned. It is also a sign of how the CPI(M) has changed over the decades, and has come a long way from going the extra mile to prevent corruption.

Why This Tearing Hurry?

Why is the Vijayan government in a tearing hurry to dilute the powers of the Lok Ayukta? Many suspect that the reason could be because the Lok Ayukta is currently hearing a petition alleging misuse of funds from the Chief Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund (CMDRF).

It is alleged that close to Rs 60 lakh from the CMDRF was given to the families of three persons close to the government, and the ruling CPI(M), violating the norms for aid distribution.

During his first term in power, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan clipped the wings of vigilance department, denied access to the CAG, and blocked the CBI. Now, in his second term, efforts are on to make the Lok Ayukta a lapdog. The Left in Kerala is drawing its own iron curtain preventing transparency and accountability to the people of Kerala.

Rejimon Kuttappan is a journalist and author. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.