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Right To Privacy:LOKPAL BILL SABOTAGED, by Poonam I Kaushish, 4 June, 2011 Print E-mail

Political Diary

New Delhi, 4 June 2011

Right To Privacy

LOKPAL BILL SABOTAGED

By Poonam I Kaushish

 

Q: How do our netagan tackle the growing clamour for reining in corruption and bringing about accountability? Join the sea of humanity  quenching its thirst on a deadly high ball cocktail of Campaign against Corruption courtesy yoga guru Ramdev? Lap up the Guru’s anti-sleaze diatribe and fasts along with him at Delhi’s Ramlila Grounds?

 

A: Not at all. First our panicky decrepit leaders hold endless rounds of discussions with Ramdev, like they did with Anna Hazare and his civil society cohorts in April. Interspersed with long sermons on morality and probity and liberally sprinkled with promises of coming clean. When that doesn’t cut ice they pledge to bring forth the 42-year long-pending Lok Pal Bill to cry a halt to sleaze. Sadly, a gullible civil society and aam janata fall for this hackneyed line. Forgetting that a leopard never changes its spots!

 

Most scandalously, instead of bringing the much-discussed and much promised Lok Pal Bill and putting in place stringent anti-graft laws. The Government has sabotaged its intentions and plans to make the Right to Privacy a Fundamental Right  which is likely to be tabled in Parliament’s monsoon session. Anna Hazare and Ramdev be damned so much reverence for coming clean! Sic.

 

According to Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily, the new law would include the right to confidentiality of communication, protection of his honour and good name, confidentiality of private or family life, protection from search, detention or exposure of lawful communication between individuals, privacy from surveillance.

 

Besides, confidentiality of banking, financial, medical and legal information, protection from identity theft of various kinds, protection of use of a person's photographs, fingerprints, DNA samples and other samples taken at police stations and other places and protection of data relating to individual. 

 

True, on the face of it there is nothing wrong with it. Practically speaking, these are already being observed. For example, it's a part of professional ethics for a lawyer or a doctor not to reveal details about clients or patients. The same applies for the banking sector. It would also address the outrage over the `compromise' of an individual's privacy under the Unique Identificaton Data, where all personal data will be available at the click of a mouse. It is also in sync with laws in various countries.

 

However, coming on the heels of the phone tapping row over corporate lobbyist Niira Radia's conversations with politicians, industrialist and journalist which became the raison de atre of the unraveling of the 2G spectrum scam leading to former telecom Minister Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi along-with businessmen being jailed it smells of rotten eggs. An elaborate charade.

 

Leaving one with a lurking suspicion than the Government has no intentions of cleaning up its Augean stables. Instead, it wants to make things as difficult as possible to ensure their can stay as crooked as ever and continue to make money under the political sun. Asserts an active top leader: “We serve the larger interest of the society and country. It’s time to protect our privacy and enact a law.” The upshot of it all is not the corrupt act, but enacting laws to protect themselves!

 

Importantly, this raises pertinent questions: Is it to protect the aam aadmi’s privacy or the khaas log? Should our netagan be the epitome of morality and probity? A notch above ordinary mortals. For us to look up to and respect. People who will not easily succumb to human weaknesses and foibles? Is the private life of publicmen a concern of the public?

 

Arguably, why is the Government afraid of coming clean? If the Right to Privacy is enforced how will our police and other law enforcing agencies use decoys, phone-taps, new-age surveillance techniques to crack down on economic offences? Nab terrorists and criminals to cleanse society of its bad elements? What happens to elaborate ‘honey traps’ laid by intelligence and counter-intelligence strategists the world over.

 

In today’s corrupt environment many strongly feel that the private life of a public person necessarily needs transparency. They stand for the strong Gandhian view that a public man has no private parts to shield. That would be a reflection on his character, integrity and values. The Mahatma was clear that a man’s public life could never be clean if his private life was not.  The two were indivisible. Hence, his emphasis on simple clean living and high thinking.

 

Most of our netagan disagree and argue: “Gandhian values were given a quiet burial long time ago. We ritually pay lip service to him, but we have bastardised his values.” Sadly, this approach flung open the doors for corruption, licentiousness and immorality. Wherein not only have scams become passé over decades, worse is our polity’s blasé attitude. It is their birthright to free-load, grab and indulge at our expense. Accustomed as we are to our law makers being law breakers and ruling by law.

 

The new Carpetbaggers. Who will ply whatever you want. Lay down any law, bend any rule, change any order, transfer any person and fudge figures. Today, money and bribes are viewed as perks of the job they handle. A potent cocktail of power.

 

What next? Indeed, Gandhi’s charkha has come a full circle. Khadi was once symbolic of a true patriot and sacrifice in the struggle for freedom. Today, it largely camouflages unabashed opportunism and criminals. An era where our powers-that-be are pulverizing society. Bringing India to the moral crossroads. 

 

Clearly, the Government needs to seriously think double-time before bringing in the  Right to Privacy.  It needs to look at laws enforce in other countries. In UK there is no right to privacy and, therefore, no right of action in the courts for breach of privacy. However, conventions are followed strictly and honourably. Wherein a politician bows out of office once a serious allegation is made. No matter how important he may be.

 

In America, the Press is allowed to publish almost any true material about public figures on the ground that “virtually all human activity reveals the true character of the person”. Remember, ex-President Clinton who barely escaped impeachment for converting the Presidential Oval office into the oral (sex) office, courtesy Monica Lewinsky.

 

In sum, it is time to pause and ponder. It is not a question of a leader’s corrupt misdeed.  But Anna Hazare and Ramdev’s a passion for upholding morality.  Thus, it is high time to cry a halt to increasing degradation and start afresh our own experiments with truth. Our leaders must desist from using the Right to Privacy to fight their political battles. Or else be prepared to face public sting! ------INFA

 

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

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