Justice Hegde not on board with allegations against PM

Mangaloretoday/NDTV

New Delhi, May 29: Justice Santosh Hegde, one of the most senior and respected members of Team Anna, is upset with the group’s recent allegations of corruption against the Prime Minister and 14 senior ministers. Mr Hegde, who has served as the ombudsman of Lokayukta of Karnataka, told NDTV on Tuesday that he "disassociates himself" from the comments made over the weekend by Team Anna, the name used for the activists who work closely with Gandhian Anna Hazare.

 

 

On Saturday, lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan and other Anna aides like Arvind Kejriwal accused the PM, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and 13 other ministers of graft. This was the first time that Team Anna charged Dr Manmohan Singh with corruption. Along with him, those targeted included SM Krishna, P Chidambaram and Salman Khurshid. Team Anna said it wanted a Special Investigation Team or SIT with three retired judges to handle a probe against the ministers. The activists warned that if the SIT was not set up by July 24, they would begin an indefinite fast from July 25.

The government said the claims were unsubstantiated and do not merit a response.

For Foreign Affairs Minister SM Krishna, the group said that while he was Chief Minister of Karnataka, he colluded with companies to allow illegal mining in the state, which is one of the main sources of the country’s iron-ore. Mr Krishna has said he will sue the activists. Justice Hegde told NDTV, "I was not consulted before allegations were made against several central ministers...I don’t know where Team Anna has got these documents on allegations against SM Krishna on illegal mining."

For the Prime Minister, the activists referred to a draft report by the government’s auditor, which estimated that 1.8 lakh crores were lost between 2004 and 2009 because coal fields were allotted at under-valued rates to companies. The PM handled the Coal Ministry directly for a part of this period. The report was leaked in March; Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai had clarified that the leaked contents were "exceedingly misleading."

Justice Hegde was one of five civil society representatives nominated by Anna last year to a committee that included five ministers -their agenda was to draft a path-breaking new anti-corruption or Lokpal Bill. The Lokpal refers to a national ombudsman empowered to investigate charges of corruption against government servants. The committee that paired the activists and the ministers fought bitterly and publicly before deciding to draft their own versions of the proposed legislation. The government eventually presented its own draft for consideration by Parliament. The Lokpal Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha in December but has yet to be cleared by the Rajya Sabha. It was referred earlier this month for more study to a parliamentary committee, leading many analysts to conclude that the bill is effectively now in cold storage.