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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre might have accused the United Progressive Alliance government of showing “unholy haste” in initiating the process to appoint the Lok Pal, but in Uttarakhand, the BJP is not making any such noise ahead of the May 7 elections.
The BJP is surprisingly silent on the undue delay in the appointment of the Lok Ayukta, the Bill for which was passed by the former Vijay Bahuguna government.
In its chargesheet against the Congress-led government, the BJP made no mention of the Lok Ayukta, the notification for which is still hanging fire. Chief Minister Harish Rawat is not showing much interest on the anti-corruption measure. Top government officials said the government has not taken any step regarding the appointment of a new Lok Ayukta in the state after the passage of the Bill in January.
In the 15-point chargesheet, the BJP mainly focuses on some alleged scandals and claimed the 9.5 per cent growth rate in 2010-11 came down to 4.5 per cent in the Congress regime.
In reaction, the Congress on Wednesday released a list of 65 alleged scandals which took place during the former BJP government. Though Congress spokesman Surendra Kumar claimed a total of 419 alleged scandals occurred during the five-year tenure of the former BJP government (2007-12), he gave the list of only 65 such scandals. This was in response to Wednesday’s chargesheet issued by the BJP against the state government.
But political observers said both the BJP and the Congress were not showing any seriousness in the corruption scandals that had rocked since Uttarakhand was formed in November 2000. Both the BJP and Congress seem to be finding themselves on the same side of the fence, they claimed. Adding, most of the time, they are playing friendly matches, much to the delight of the corrupt people.
In the case of 56 alleged scandals during the former N D Tiwari regime, not much progress was made. Former chief minister B C Khanduri had set up an inquiry commission in September 2007 to prepare reports on alleged corruption cases of the previous Congress government, which include alleged irregularities in leasing out of horticulture gardens and purchase of computers in various departments. Later, the scope of the commission was enlarged to 68 scams.
Justice (retd) B C Kandpal commission had found irregularities in 17 cases either at the level of public servants or the department level during 2002 to 2007 when the Congress was at power. But after the report given to the government, no action was initiated and the BJP lost power in the 2012 Assembly elections.
Similarly, the Congress government has put the First Information Report of the K L Bhati commission, which probed the alleged scandals of the former BJP government, on the back-burner.
However, soon after submitting the report, Bhati resigned following a controversy over his official residence. Later, Bhati was replaced by S C Tripathi, who is also a retired IAS officer. Since then, there has been no report regarding the Tripathi commission of inquiry against the BJP scandals. This is despite the fact the Congress had made the alleged scandals of BJP government a big issue in the 2012 Assembly elections.
“On corruption, both the BJP and Congress are not serious. This is very bad,” said Anil P Josh, a social activist.
