In an atmosphere where people generally view all government officers with suspicion, it is the activism of a bunch of elderly citizens that has led to the recent landmark ruling from the supreme court that effectively bars any convicted person from participating in polls or even continuing in office either as a legislator or parliamentarian. This organisation is Lok Prahari (www.lokprahari.org), based in Lucknow. Of its 20 members, 14 are retired IAS and IPS officers, while the rest comprise judges, technocrats and others. The key functionary is Satya Narain Shukla, a retired IAS officer, whose residence in Lucknow’s upmarket Niralanagar locality serves as the society’s office and secretariat. The diminutive Shukla is a picture of courage and conviction as far as his present responsibilities are concerned. Before his retirement in 2003, he was generally known as an officer who was too straight for anyone’s comfort.

He talks about a range of issues without once seeking to go off the record:

Did you decide during your long stint in bureaucracy that forming an NGO was the only way to correct things?
I completed my law (studies) before my retirement and my father was also a lawyer, so I think it runs in my genes to be proper and correct. However, I realised during my service years that nothing monumental comes out of discussions and meetings. Appropriate action alone leads to change. And by this action I do not mean protests and agitations, but judicial intervention alone can bring about change that can be implemented. So I realised that what I could not do during service could perhaps be done later.

How has been your experience with politicians?
I was widely considered a ‘nuisance’ as I never became a party in partisan political decisions and was not considered an amenable officer. I have no qualms in saying that till the 1980s, politicians had good political acumen, upheld some values – even if a fraction – and were generally not vindictive. There was a CM in the ’80s who once called me and told me that a senior minister wanted me transferred out of his department. I knew the reason behind this, and I told the CM that in my place he should post another upright officer and see after how many days this minister sought his transfer too. The CM understood and stood his ground. But today such a thing is hardly likely to happen. Unfortunately, UP is one of the states where governance is among the poorest.

Are only politicians to blame for the mess we see today?
No, not at all. In fact, today bureaucrats have all but forgotten the three things they are told to maintain in the beginning – honesty, neutrality and credibility. They prefer to swim along the tide with politicians and be guided by concerns of money and caste alone. I have maintained that if the top official of a department is upright then he can set his department right, howsoever difficult the department may be considered. Nothing can be done in the government without the knowledge – or connivance – of the departmental secretary. I hold no brief for officers who hide behind the shelter of ‘political pressure’.

How did Lok Prahari come about?
It was during my service days that a group of like-minded officers and others used to sit together and wonder how we could do something to bring about change. In August 2003, we decided to form an organisation with the sole objective of contributing to good governance. RK Trivedi, former chief election commissioner and former governor of Gujarat, is the chief patron of the society, while SN Sahai, retired judge of Allahabad high court and JN Chaturvedi, former DGP (UP) and ex-chairman of UP public service commission, are patrons of the society. NM Majmudar, a former member, board of revenue, UP, is the president and former Rajya Sabha secretary general RC Tripathi is the vice-president. There are 10 founder members and others joined subsequently.

What are the main activities of this organisation?
While the only objective is to contribute to good governance, we realise that even minor things need to be implemented only through judicial orders. Therefore, our major activities are filing writs or special leave petitions in the high court or the supreme court on a wide variety of matters. We also keep submitting representations, memoranda and letters to officials and authorities concerned regarding civic amenities, exorbitant school fees, listing of cases in courts and so on.

How did this PIL about electoral reforms come about?
The petition was filed by us and by Lily Thomas in 2005. We had asked the apex court to set aside the clause 8(4) of the Representation of the People Act because this clause allowed the sitting MPs and MLAs to continue to be elected representative even when they get convicted in a court of law. We prayed that this special safeguard is ultra vires to the constitution. However, I understand that some issue could rise if in future a party in power jailed its political opponents and barred them from contesting elections. In such a situation, the election commission needs to move ahead with its set of reforms that have been pending for years.

What are the other major issues on which your PILs are pending?
Among the most important petitions pending in the supreme court is the one in which we have prayed against the allotment of government bungalows to ex-CMs and other non-eligible organisations. Such a practice first began in UP and now governments in many northern states are doing the same. The writ petition has been pending since 2004 and now we wait for what happens after the new chief justice.
A petition challenging the legislators’ local area fund filed by us was dismissed in May on the ground that the supreme court had upheld the validity of the MP local area development fund. But we will go for a special leave petition in the apex court now.
A couple of years ago, another major petition that we filed was against the appointment of a non-cadre person as cabinet secretary during Mayawati’s regime. It was a brazen violation of all rules and laws where a political favourite was brought from the backdoor as the senior-most officer in the government.
Another important petition under hearing is about successive governments flouting the all-India service rules which provide that no state laws must contradict the central laws. Yet another major petition filed in 2011 is about providing security of tenure to officers. While 13 states have since issued orders in this regard, UP is still dragging its feet.

How do you decide which issues to take up? Is there always consensus on this?
All of us sit together and discuss issues of national importance. There is complete unanimity among all of us in whatever we proceed to do. We also work in tandem with like-minded organisations, like the ones headed by Prakash Singh and Transparency International headed by justice Rameshwar Dayal.

What are your major concerns now?
I can see that people are fast losing faith in democracy. The day is not far when people will view with suspicion all government officers and politicians. We have to prevent that from happening, because it will spell a doom for our country.