Charging the State government with protecting corrupt Lokayukta Y. Bhaskar Rao, Aam Aadmi Party leader Ravikrishna Reddy on Saturday termed the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government a system supporting corruption and corrupt people.
Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Reddy said that neither Chief Minister Siddaramaiah nor the other member in his cabinet had so far spoken about justice Bhaskar Rao, although there were many serious allegations against him.
“This government is protecting a corrupt person and intends to dump the Lokayukta. A special session had been convened to amend the law to suit the party's objective of putting off BBMP elections, but when it came to the removal of the corrupt from the Lokayukta institution, the government had not evinced any interest. It was because many Ministers, including the Chief Minister, had complaints filed against them with the Lokayukta,” he said.
The issue of corruption in Lokayukta had become a serious issue because the AAP had raised it repeatedly in the public and staged protests. "Our workers have faced police cases and underwent imprisonment for protesting against corruption. We can proudly say that the issue has reached up to this level because of the commitment of our party to fight corruption,” he said. Upa Lokayukta Subhash B. Adi was appointed after some objectionable events surfaced. Jagadish Shettar-led BJP government recommended his name for the post, when he was still a judge of Karnataka High Court. As his name was rejected on technical grounds that he was still a judge, he resigned and got appointed as Upa Lokayukta within no time. “This sudden turn of events lead to several doubts,” he said. Referring to farmers’ suicides and atrocities against Dalits in Hassan, Mr. Reddy said that the district had contributed two Chief Ministers and a Prime Minister to the country.
However, representatives of the district had failed to fulfil the aspirations of the electorate. “Deve Gowda became Prime Minister by projecting himself as a farmer, but he failed in creating a system where farmers need not resort to suicide,” he said.
Similarly, the downtrodden people were being exploited in the district. The elected representatives should educate the people and spread awareness against caste and religion-based discrimination, he said.
