The power to promulgate ordinances is one of the most misused by governments, both at the Centre and in the states. But for this power, Indira Gandhi would not have imposed Emergency on the country. Narendra Modi, too, would not have thought of the farm laws but for this power. The last to misuse it is Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who got an ordinance promulgated to cut the powers of the Lokayukta. It was totally unwarranted as the Assembly session was due and he had the requisite support to get the Bill passed. Why he did not want to wait was the fear that the Lokayukta might take an unpleasant decision on certain cases against him and a minister.
The Lokayukta in Kerala was the most powerful as it could be headed only by a former chief justice of a high court or a former justice of the Supreme Court. Once it gave a verdict against a minister, he or she would have to leave office. What the ordinance has done is to emasculate it. Any former judge of a high court can be the Lokayukta now. Its verdict against a minister is not binding on the government as the chief minister can decide whether the person concerned should leave his office or not. In other words, the institution has been defanged and that, too, without taking the constituents of the LDF, like the CPI, into confidence. The most shocking is the conduct of the governor, who, after seemingly questioning the bona fides of the government’s intention, gladly signed the ordinance when Vijayan called on him after his return from the US where he underwent treatment at state expense.
Ironically, the Lokayukta was the creation of the CPM-led EK Nayanar government. When Anna Hazare launched a satyagraha demanding a Lokpal at the Centre, it was the Lokayukta in Kerala which was cited as a model by many experts. Vijayan had once boast fully claimed that the Kerala ombudsman not only had teeth but could also bite. But when he realised that he could be bitten, he thought of the ordinance. So much for his concern for transparency and exquisite political conduct!
