The Bihar Lokayukta office

Patna, Dec. 22: Lalu Prasad today made a forceful appeal for inclusion of minorities in the Lokpal, but as chief minister of Bihar in the nineties, he often disregarded recommendations made by the only Lokayukta he had appointed.

Within a year of taking over as the chief minister in March 1990, Lalu Prasad appointed a former acting chief justice of Patna High Court, Syed Sarwar Ali, as the state’s Lokayukta, the only Muslim to have so far held the post of the anti-corruption ombudsman in Bihar. Sarwar Ali was Lokayukta from February 7, 1991, to February 6, 1996. For five years thereafter, Bihar didn’t have a Lokayukta as Lalu Prasad had scant regard for the position.

Soon after taking over, Lalu Prasad had endeared himself to the Muslims, having stopped LK Advani’s Ram Rath Yatra that was whipping up passions across the country and had the BJP leader arrested at Samastipur in October 1990.

But the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief’s track record of respecting the institution of Lokayukta turned out to be abysmal.

Lalu spiked the first major recommendation that Sarwar Ali made. The Lokayukta had recommended the shifting of the then deputy commissioner of East Singhbhum (then in united Bihar), Gorelal Yadav, for alleged corruption. But Lalu turned it down.

“Lokayukta ka kaam DM, SP ka tabadla nahin hai. Yeh kaam mukhyamantri ka hai (Lokayukta is not supposed to shuffle the DMs and SPs. That’s the jurisdiction of the chief minister),” Lalu Prasad, then at the height of his powers, had famously said.

The post of East Singhbhum DC, based at the steel city of Jamshedpur, was — and is — considered a prized posting and in undivided Bihar, only officers close to the powers-that-be would be sent there. Yadav, an IAS officer who had unhindered access to Lalu Prasad’s household, enjoyed four stints as deputy commissioner in Jamshedpur between August 1991 and June 1996.

Incidentally, Yadav was also the local guardian of Misa — Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi’s eldest daughter — who was at the time studying medicine at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College in Jamshedpur.

Through Sarwar Ali’s tenure, Lalu Prasad continued to pay little or no heed to his recommendations, making a mockery of the institution. After Sarwar Ali’s term ended, Lalu Prasad refused to appoint a new Lokayukta in spite of clamour from the Opposition and the post remained vacant until June 2001.

Sarwar Ali, his predecessors and his successors, including C.M. Prasad — the present Lokayukta — appointed under the Bihar Lokayukta Act 1973, had to be content with recommendatory powers only, something which the new Lokayukta legislation in the state seeks to redress.

The Lokayukta cleared promotions of senior officials and also recommended action based on complaints to the departments concerned. “But their (Lokayukta’s) recommendations would in most cases lead to only a departmental inquiry conducted by the department head,” revealed a secretary-rank official. “In most cases, the probe would amount to nothing.”

Political circles here believe that Lalu’s has been trying to win back Muslims into his fold and had scored a point or two over his rivals with his “performance” in Parliament today.

Nitish Kumar, away on his Seva Yatra in central Bihar’s Rohtas district, was not available for comment, but sources close to him admitted that it would be hard for the Bihar chief minister to oppose Lalu on the “sensitive” issue. “Nitish will not take the line that would appear to be anti-minorities,” said a senior JD(U) leader. “Lalu has played the ball well this time.”