THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: CPM veteran leader Anathalavattom Anandan has openly admitted that the Left leaders' opposition to the Lokayukta amendment during the term of the Nayanar government was wrong. Anandan stated that he and other leaders opposed the amendment to the Lokayukta Act in 1999 due to ignorance about the unconstitutionality of Section 14.

"The government is now preparing to make corrections as it got convinced of the unconstitutionality of Section 14. We are admitting our mistake to the public by making the new decision," Anandan said. The provision that the government can reject the Lokayukta order had been dropped during the term of the Nayanar government in 1999. This had paved the way for discussions on the last day. The draft Lokayukta Act, which was first introduced in the Assembly in 1999, had also contained the amendment which was being introduced by the present government. The Assembly documents that came out recently stated that the Left leaders had strongly opposed the amendment back then.

Left leaders like G Sudhakaran and Anathalavattom Anandan had strongly opposed the provision that the Lokayukta could be overruled by the Governor or the Chief Minister. Anandan had opposed the amendment by stating that the government will be above the Lokayukta if it gets an opportunity to ignore the decisions of the Lokayukta. Several other Left leaders had also opposed the amendment.