At a public event on 3 December, Justice Veerappa said that corruption in Kerala stood at 10 percent, while it is 63 percent in Karnataka, and that he was able to witness it after becoming the Upa Lokayukta.
Published Dec 06, 2025 | 2:25 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 06, 2025 | 2:25 PM
A 2019 survey by a global anti-corruption advocacy group has sparked a fresh political spat between the ruling Congress and the BJP in Karnataka.
Synopsis: A 2019 survey by a global anti-corruption advocacy group became the centre of a fresh political spat between the ruling Congress and the BJP in Karnataka this week, after Deputy Lokayukta Justice B Veerappa cited the survey to claim that corruption in the state now stood at 63 percent. Despite Veerappa’s later clarification, leaders from the two parties have been trading blows, each blaming the other for the state’s corruption.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka recently targeted the ruling Congress over a statement issued by Deputy Lokayukta Justice B Veerappa claiming earlier this week that corruption in the state stood at 63 percent.
But much to the saffron party’s embarrassment, he was referring to an old survey from 2019.
At a public event on Wednesday, 3 December, Justice Veerappa said that corruption in Kerala stood at 10 percent, while it is 63 percent in Karnataka, and that he was able to witness it after becoming the Upa Lokayukta.
The BJP used his statement to target the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah-led Congress government, with State President BY Vijayendra claiming that “esteemed judges are now writing in praise of the actual ‘achievements’ of the corrupt Congress government.”
“Isn’t this the biggest evidence needed for the Congress government’s 2.5 years of corruption and misgovernance? Crore after crore of scams, looting of the treasury, and the epitome of misgovernance is a whopping 63 percent corruption!” he said in a post on X.
However, Veerappa on Friday clarified that his statement was based on the India Corruption Survey 2019, published in November 2019 by the global anti-corruption advocacy group Transparency International India in collaboration with Local Circles, a social media firm.
He stressed that he did not refer to any party and that political leaders were “taking advantage for their personal gains.”
The survey was conducted between October 2019 and November 2019 and received approximately 190,000 responses across a series of questions at the state and national level.
The period was a particularly turbulent time in Karnataka politics. After five years in power, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress had been ousted in the 2018 Assembly polls, with the BJP emerging as the single largest party but without sufficient numbers to form a majority government on its own.
Initially, the Congress and JDS forged an alliance and were in power for 14 months until July 2019, with HD Kumaraswamy at the helm.
But the BJP returned to power in July, after 17 MLAs from the Congress and the JDS defected to the saffron party, with BS Yediyurappa as Chief Minister.
According to the survey, Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, West Bengal, Kerala, Goa and Odisha were the states where citizens reported low instances of corruption, while Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand and Punjab were the states where citizens reported higher instances.
Within Karnataka, the survey said 63 percent of citizens who participated admitted to paying a bribe to get their work done.
Out of this, 35 percent gave bribes several times (directly or indirectly) while 28 percent paid bribes once or twice. Nine percent said they got work done without paying a bribe.
The survey further detailed the authorities to whom residents of Karnataka paid bribes: 40 percent to property registration and land offices, 21 percent to the municipal corporation, 23 percent to the police and 16 percent to others, including the electricity board, transport office and tax office.
Since Justice Veerappa’s remarks, senior leaders from both the BJP and Congress have been trading barbs on social media, blaming each other for the state’s corruption.
Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly R Ashoka claimed that corruption is rampant in every department of the government.
“The BJP government was accused of a baseless 40 percent commission falsehood and subjected to malicious propaganda to mislead Kannadigas and seize power. Now the Congress party has completely drowned itself in the commission racket,” he said in a post on X.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah shot back, accusing the opposition of “twisting facts” and attempting to shift blame from its own past tenure.
“He [Justice Veerappa] was referring to a report of Transparency International India from 2019, which said corruption in Karnataka stood at 63 percent when the BJP government under BS Yediyurappa was in power. But BJP leaders, in their hurry to attack us, have only exposed their own record,” the chief minister wrote in a post on X.
He then listed several alleged corruption schemes under the BJP’s regime.
“From the 40 percent commission regime to COVID procurement scams, PSI recruitment scam, irrigation project illegalities, and cases where even their own workers levelled charges, BJP’s corruption track record needs no introduction,” he wrote.
“Our government is cleaning up the mess we inherited, strengthening transparency, and ensuring public money is protected.”
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
