Fly On the Wall
Lokpal's unending woes
BJP Lok Sabha MP Nishi Kant Dubey may have sent his complaint against TMC MP Mahua Moitra to the Lokpal for indulging in corrupt practices. But Lokpal's past record of punishing high & mighty is very poor and failed to create a buzz considering the fact that it came into being in March 2019, nearly 72 years after Independence. A retired judge of the Supreme Court Pinaki Chandra Ghose was appointed as the first Lokpal of India with other members.
But it's more than four years since the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) under the PMO has yet to finalise the rules for the 'Babus” to declare their assets under the Lokpal law are yet to be notified. It was envisaged under the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013, every public servant was required to file asset details under Section 44 on March 31 every year or on or before July 31. Fresh rules to prescribe the form and format for filing details of assets and liabilities by central government employees under the Lokpal Act are yet to be notified, the DoPT said. The declaration under the Lokpal law is in addition to similar ones filed by the employees under various service rules. For 2014, the last date for filing the declaration was September 15. After several extensions, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) extended the deadline indefinitely on December 1, 2016, saying a new format and fresh set of rules were being finalised by the government in this regard.
Since then, it's been an endless wait for the rules. This was officially admitted by the DoPT in response to a query. All public servants will henceforth be required to file the declarations as may be prescribed by the fresh set of rules, the DoPT order added.
Lokpal's Long wait too
Not only rules but the Lokpal is working without a full time chairman and its full strength. It is surprising that the government did not take timely steps to fill vacancies at the top. The Chairman of the Lokpal, Justice Ghose retired in May and the Ambushman has been functioning without a full-time chairman for the past six months. In addition, there are only six members in the Lokpal against the sanctioned strength of eight. Two posts of judicial members have been lying vacant for over two years. A 10-member search committee under Press Council of India chairperson Justice Ranjana Desai was constituted in August 2023 and the process is continuing. One can only wonder how the Lokpal deal will deal with the Mahua Moitra case as the Ethics Committee of Parliament has already put it on a fast track and a decision may be out sooner than expected.
Pramod Mahajan's missing photo
Political circles were pleasantly surprised last week to find full page advertisements appearing across India the inauguration of Pramod Mahajan Gramin Kaushalya Vikas Kendra numbering 511 such kendras in one go. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief guest on the occasion with Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's photo appearing in the advertisements. Though the scheme was launched in 2015 but nothing was done ostensibly about it and the state government woke up in 2023 to launch it in a big way giving the late BJP leader who built the party brick by brick in Maharashtra. But political analysts were surprised to see that the photo of the departed leaders was not carried along with the scheme launched after his name. Queries in this regard went unanswered and no one was willing to even discuss the issue. The supporters of the late leader were however thankful to the state government and the PM for giving Mahajan his due.
Modi's new milestone
Prime Minister Modi has crossed another milestone when he broke his predecessor Manmohan Singh's record of foreign visits. If Manmohan Singh undertook 73 foreign visits during ten years, Prime Minister Modi did 74 visits in nine years & five months in office. Modi is set to undertake another half a dozen foreign tours during the remaining seven months of his second term.
If Manmohan Singh's first trip was to Thailand to attend the BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) Summit on July 29, 2004, Modi began his maiden foreign visit to Bhutan on June 15–16, 2014 after assuming office. If Singh concluded his final visit to Myanmar on March 3, 2014, Modi's last visit was to Indonesia, where he attended the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) in September.
It also emerged that Modi has spent fewer days abroad than his predecessor (270 days versus Singh’s 306) and has traveled more extensively and actively than any other Indian PM. Singh undertook 35 visits abroad in his first term and 38 in his second. Modi embarked on 49 overseas visits in his first term, which dropped to 25 foreign visits in his second term which included two years of the Covid-19 pandemic. Interestingly, Modi has visited Nepal five times, while Singh could not visit Kathmandu even once. Modi became the first PM with his visit to Israel in July 2017 and Palestine a year later.
