Government wants to keep Prime Minister out of the ambit of Lokpal’s jurisdiction. It means that if there is any allegation of corruption against the Prime Minister, the same cannot be investigated. In effect, it amounts to giving complete immunity to the Prime Minister from any kind of investigations and prosecution.
This violates constitutional provisions because the constitution does not grant any such immunity to the Prime Minister. Constitution grants such immunity only to the President. Constitutional forefathers granted such immunity to the President to avoid any destabilization at the top. By keeping Prime Minister out of the ambit of Lokpal Bill, the government is informally and effectively amending the constitution.
Government’s argument is that if Prime Minister were covered under Lokpal, it would create an instability at the top. “Imagine if the prime minister were being investigated. He would not be able to take any decisions as long as the investigations were on,” argued government ministers in the last joint committee meeting. They were reminded by Prashant Bhushan that the then Prime Minister was also investigated by CBI in Bofors case. That did not deter him from taking decisions or make him “dysfunctional”. Likewise, Mr Narasimha Rao was also under scanner for corruption charges.
Therefore, till now, CBI could investigate the misdeeds of the Prime Minister. Now, no one would be able to investigate him. That’s going many steps backwards rather than strengthening our anti-corruption systems.
Another argument was given to keep the Prime Minister out. There would be politically motivated complaints which would be frivolous but would keep the PM perpetually under scanner. That is incorrect. Because an unsubstantiated complaint would not be entertained by Lokpal. A seven member bench of Lokpal would first hear that complaint and decide whether there was adequate prima facie evidence against the PM. If there were none, the complaint would be dismissed.
The government had drafted a very weak Lokpal Bill in January this year. The Bill was so bad that it was universally criticized. Many civil society people got together and drafted an alternate Jan Lokpal Bill. The whole anti-corruption movement was against government’s weak Lokpal bill and to demand enactment of jan Lokpal Bill. Interestingly, prime Minister was covered in the government’s draft Lokpal bill also which was considered quite bad. The government, rather than strengthening anti-corruption systems, is further weakening them.
All this makes government’s intentions suspect. Why is it so important to bring Prime Minister under Lokpal’s scanner? For many reasons. At any time, Prime Minister holds many portfolios. Does it mean that all those ministries would also be out of Lokpal? If Prime Minister were out of Lokpal, is it possible that he becomes the conduit for collecting money on behalf of other ministers?
Being privy to the most critical information, a corrupt prime minister can become the biggest threat to internal and external security of India. It is extremely important that there were an independent, credible and effective system to investigate him and take timely action.
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