Political Diary
New Delhi, 14 May 2011
Radia-Bhushan Tapes
CROSSED WIRES OR JANGLED
NERVES
By Poonam I Kaushish
Political India
is beginning to resemble a leaking sieve. Wherein our netagan, power-brokers, fixers and journalist seem to have got all
their connections crossed and jangled. A classic case of star spangled jinx!
Starting with the infamous lobbyist Nira Radia tapes of her
conversations with politicians, industrialists, bureaucrats and journalists to
‘fix’ things vis-à-vis the allotment of the 2G spectrum. Recorded by the Income
Tax Department, the tapes purportedly evidence the planning of the Rs 1.76 lakh
crores 2G spectrum scam and other criminal and unconstitutional activities.
If this swirling eddy of corruption scandal was not bad
enough, came another bombshell by the Badshah
of phone-tapping Amar Singh who unveiled an audio CD which reportedly carried
the voice of lawyer Shanti Bhushan in conversation with Mulayam and Amar Singh.
The discussion centres around Bhushan’s son and civil activist Prashant’s
ability to ‘fix’ an Andhra judge for Rs. 4 crores.
Predictably, all hell broke lose. While the Bhushans’
proclaimed their innocence, asserting the CD was doctored and timed to de-rail
the drafting of the Jan Lokpal Bill, Amar Singh stuck to his guns and Mulayam
claimed zero recall. Never mind, why a
2006 CD made a surprise entry in 2011.
Singh's 'heartfelt, soul stirring, now-how-does-that-feel'
rebuttal failed to cut any ice. Given that in 2006 he had accusing Congress
President, Sonia Gandhi of getting his phone tapped and produced Home Ministry
letters to prove his charge. The phone-taps pertained to the then Samajwadi
leader’s gup-shup with some film
stars. Adding to his woes on Wednesday
last, the Supreme Court rejected his petition seeking a ban on making public
his conversations.
True, in a narrow political sense, the phone-tapping
incidents are yet another indicator of how low and dirty our polity plays.
There are no rules of the game. Morality and ethics no longer matter. Haramzadigi, if I say so, is the new name of the game.
But the issue goes far beyond this. It raises serious and
pertinent questions about the violation of an individual’s basic right to
privacy and his fundamental right to freedom of speech, enshrined in our
Constitution.
In this cesspool, indeed it is heartening to note that a
much-rattled UPA is planning to set-up a three-member Data Protection Authority
whose main function would include monitoring and enforcing compliance of the
protection laws and “investigate any data security breach which might
compromise personal data of an affected individual.”
But this could also serve as a double-edged sword, warn
experts. There is no denying that phone-tapping is undertaken the world over
for reasons of national security or serious crimes. Wiretapping is regulated
under the Telegraph Act of 1885.
Officially, only the Union Home Secretary, or his counterparts in the States
can issue an order for telephone tapping, and the police are allowed to tap
telephones of a person receiving threatening calls.
The Government is also required to show that the information
sought cannot to be obtained through any other means. Tapping has to be done
with the assistance of the telecommunications department. For instance, the
Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is known to possess computers that can catch a
key word in a conversation and then record the entire conversation. The
computer is fed with the name of the wanted person and any conversation where
that person's name is used gets recorded.
Indeed, some time back two Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists were
gunned down by the Delhi
police on the basis of their cellphone records. In 2000 the cricket scandal of
match fixing was also exposed thanks to the tapping of the phones of bookies
and the former South African captain, Hansie Cronje.
However, trust our netagan
to use their brute authority to get phones of their political opponents
tapped. In fact, there have been several phone tapping scandals in recent years
leading to a Supreme Court direction in 1996. The Court ruled that wiretaps are
a "serious invasion of an individual's privacy”. The Court recognized the
fact that the right to privacy is an integral part of the Fundamental Right to
life enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution. The Court even laid down
guidelines for wiretapping by the Government.
Sadly, as the Radia-Bhushan tapes underscore there is no
definite indication that privacy is being respected as per the Supreme Court's
guidelines. As India's cream de la cream
especially the political class and the
business community shift to cellular phones as the preferred mode of
communication, more and more instances are coming to light of not just security
agencies but even cellular company employees selling telephone records of rival
companies for a consideration or just listening in on conversations.
Recall, how phone tapping was taken recourse to in an
attempt to destabilize the BJP-BSP coalition Government in UP in 2001.
Allegedly a political fixer tapped the phones of the BSP rebels to ensure that
they did not desert the Party.
Not many are aware that it is quite easy for anyone to tap
the telephone as it does not require much skill. All it takes is the right
equipment and the bank account to support the investment. According to
detectives, if one pays a little money to the linesman, who is sitting near the
telephone exchange, a parallel connection can be arranged and the conversation
easily tapped. Another way to eavesdrop upon a telephone conversation is to
place a transmitter, one-fourth the size of a matchbox, between the telephone
exchange and the phones.
Not only that. With computer-based portable interception
devices that not only record conversation and SMS remotely but organise it
neatly in a database for future reference, tapping into cellphone is becoming
child's play. Easy to operate with the push of a few buttons, these devices
come in user-friendly packaging and can be operated on car cigarette lighters.
phone company computers can record millions of movements going back to more
than a year and therefore the location of a user at any given time or date can
be traced to within a few hundred meters of the exact spot.
Security agencies are now understood to be actively making
what are called "plotter's charts" in their terminology. The
cellphone of a person visiting the national Capital can be locked in their
beams by sleuths and even if he does not discuss confidential issues, the
signals can track his movements. Though there are methods to prevent tapping,
not many make use of them. This involves the use of debugging instrument and
scramblers. While abroad people use scrambles which are superior to debugging,
but its price keeps people away.
But as the Radia-Amar Singh issue has highlighted, the time
has come for a debate on the invasion of privacy. It is not merely an issue of
washing of dirty political linen to score petty points. But as more and more
people turn to higher technology-based phones of all varieties due to falling
rates, privacy and grievance redress will become more and more contentious as
it involves the basic issue of human rights. Questions rarely addressed by
political parties.
Obversely, many aver that had it not been for the Radia
tapes the 2G scam would have gone undetected. Besides, our security and
investigative agencies need to intercept terrorist conversations as also sleaze
gorging into the country’s vitals. But the Government must also ensure that the
privacy of an individual is not compromised.
The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has done well to have
acknowledged that “phone-tapping is a very serious matter”. Perhaps the new
guidelines might put an end to phone taps being used as a “political tool and stock-in-trade”
Either which way, we need to juggle and use information that is in the country,
not individual’s best interest. Our leaders need to stay connected to the aam aadmi! ---- INFA
(Copyright India News and Feature Alliance)
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