Judiciary

Ensuring that lack of sanction does not stop corruption cases against Government officials – Judgement by the Supreme Court

The Government has a number of laws against corruption on the books; if implemented in a proper way, they should be enough to ensure that corruption levels go down. However, when the investigating arms of the Government (such as the CBI, ED, etc) are forced by the Government to behave in a certain way, then there is the need for having an independent investigator such as the Lokpal, or to remove the control of the Government from the current investigating agencies. So, the Government suffers a credibility gap in terms of the reputation of its commitment to fighting corruption.
What causes more problems is the state of corruption cases against Government officers, where a sanction is needed from the Government. Under the Prevention of Corruption Act, a sanction is needed from the Government for the investigation / prosecuting agencies to go ahead with a case against a Government official. One would think that the Government should ensure that those indulging in corruption are proceeded against, and not deny this sanction; this is more so especially when the Government is in such a bind over corruption with its public image battered. And yet, one third of such cases are in a position where the agencies are waiting for Government sanction of the cases.
The suspicion is that in many cases, some elements of the political classes are complicit along with the accused Government official, or that the Government does not really want that official to face prosecution because they want that particular case to die down (as has happened in the past). These cases would get highlighted from time to time in the media, but the situation remained that the Government would not buckle down; what would typically happen is that when the agencies asked for permission, they were not denied nor were the given approval. Instead, there would be a deafening silence to the repeated request for sanction for prosecution, until the agency would give up.
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What exactly is happening in the case of the Jan Lokapal Bill ?

Ever since August, when Anna launched his fast, which was such a huge success in terms of getting the Government to move from not contemplating any changes in the Government version of the Lokpal bill, to a state where Parliament had accepted most of the propositions of Anna (without actually committing to the Bill). The Government was desperate to get the fast ended, and decided to postpone the eventuality by sending the various versions of the Bill to the Standing Committee of Parliament, which in turn would talk to most of the people involved and then finally work out a version of the Bill, which would be sent back to Parliament. For this, the Government had committed in writing to Anna that they would do this in the winter session of Parliament, which is due to start pretty soon.
In the meantime, the Government started its usual smear campaign against the various members of Anna’s team, coupled with some dodgy actions of the team, and also some practices that were more controversial. So, you had Kiran Bedi getting money for her NGO by charging various organizers of events full business fare, and actually going by economy (but the full exposure of this must have gladdened the heart of the Congress side); then you had the discredited Swami Agnivesh creeping out of his hole to allege that money collected during the entire fast was actually taken to Arvind Kejriwal’s NGO (later stated that this was by design, and with full audits revealed of the collection); and Prashant Bhushan making statements of plebiscite in Kashmir, something that does not sit well with the middle class, and did not sit well with Anna. However, if the argument is that only those who have not done anything wrong can campaign against corruption, then we might as well give up and let the corrupt (of the thousands of crores as well) get what they want.
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2G scam continues to haunt the Government – SC asks why PM did not follow through

The 2G scam continues to haunt the Congress party. For quite some time, the Congress evaded that there was any issue with the 2G scam issue, claimed that this was a policy decision (with the honorable purpose of reducing the telecom rates), that the CAG was off its rocker, that the Supreme Court had no locus standi. Next, the Congress tried to separate itself from the scope of the scam by claiming that all this was the work of a rogue minister, A Raja; the PM was helpless since he had to depend on the minister, was bound by the challenges of coalitions politics, and besides the poor PM was a single man, how could he monitor everything that was happening (thankfully, the PM did not repeat this particular line, else the charge of being a useless and non-caring PM would have stuck to his plate).
For quite some time, the Congress believed that this will work, that eventually the case will lost its media attention, and the CBI will be persuaded to back off or make the case much weaker (which is what the CBI is already being accused of). However, when other people smell blood, then it is difficult to stop them. So, the media is forever on the case, and Subramaniam Swamy is dedicated to targeting some of the senior members of the Congress in the 2G scam rather than be satisfied with the scalp of A Raja.
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