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Radia-Bhushan Tapes:CROSSED WIRES OR JANGLED NERVES, by Poonam I Kaushish, 14 May, 2011 Print E-mail

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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