Karnataka Lok Ayukta Justice Santosh Hegde called upon citizens to socially boycott corrupt politicians and bureaucrats in a bid to end the menace of corruption.
Inaugurating the anti-corruption campaign launched by Dharwad Janandolana Samiti here on Thursday he said several laws had failed to eradicate corruption and hence the need for use of social boycott as a weapon.
He said Anna Hazare’s fight for a Lokpal Bill was for a social cause and not political. Hazare has no political ambitions, he said.
On the differences between the civil society and the government over the contents of the Lokpal Bill draft, Justice Hegde said the government was only highlighting two issues- inclusion of PM and judiciary into purview of Lokpal- while there were other serious differences persisted.
“The draft prepared by the government provides for a common man to file a complaint against an officer or politician. But in the same breath it also permits the accused to file a counter complaint against the complainant at government’s expenses. Under such circumstances who will come forward to lodge a complaint against the corrupt,” he asked.
Ruling out the possibility of the members from the civil society compromising with the government in drafting the Bill, he said Hazare would launch a massive campaign if the government stood its ground.
Later Justice Hegde replied to the queries posed by students and citizens at an inter action session.
Shamsunder Bidarkundi, Ramanjanappa Aldalli and Dr Sanjeev Kulkarni also spoke.
Nagaraj Gurikar proposed a vote of thanks.
