Political Diary

New Delhi, 2 August 2014

Bugging Scandal

HELLO, I HEAR YOU LOUD!

By Poonam I Kaushish

Making a mountain out of a molehill? Or a molehill out of a mountain? Two questions which sent political Delhi into a tizzy last week. All over reports of Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari's residential bedroom being bugged. Raising a moot point: Is this the BJP’s new Chera and Chintan over its ministerial Chaal and Chritra?

Predictably, a rumped Congress sans issues went to town asserting it reflected lack of faith and mutual trust among NDA Ministers. Notwithstanding, Home Minister Rajnath Singh pooh-pahing it, instead trying to turn tables by stating Gadkari might have been targeted by the Congress UPA regime. Sic.

True, in a narrow political sense the I-spy-game in political circles is old hat. Distressingly, the Central and State Governments take recourse to “illegal” phone-tapping to keep track of their own flock, political opponents using legitimate purposes of militants and anti-social elements as a perfect camouflage. Thereby, underscoring how low and dirty out polity plays.

Indeed, instances are aplenty: phone tapping to destabilize the BJP-BSP coalition Government in UP in 2001, ex-Samajwadi leader Amar Singh’s ‘Operation Majnu’ 2006, Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh 2009, President Pranab Mukherjee as Finance Minister and corporate lobbyist Nira Radia in 2010,

In 2011 SP supremo Mulayam and Amar Singh’s audio CD with lawyer Shanti Bhushan to “fix” a judge, senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha phone-bug 2012, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s call data records (CDR) accessed by a detective when he was Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition 2013 along-with  60 high-profile politicians and Gujarat’s Snoopgate scandal last year et al.

Who cares if it is violation of an individual’s basic right to privacy, his fundamental right to freedom of speech and illegal and violation of Telegraph Act of 1885. And the 1996 Supreme Court order which ruled that wiretaps are a "serious invasion of an individual's confidentiality”. With the rider, that the right is only available and enforceable against the State and not against action by private entities.

The Court also laid out guidelines for wiretapping by the Government which defined who could tap phones and under what circumstances. Officially, only the Union Home Secretary, or his counterparts in the States can issue an order for a bugging and the police are allowed to tap phones of a person receiving threatening calls. In addition, sporadic tapping is allowed to track money launderers. All decisions, however, are subject to review by an oversight committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary.

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.

Security agencies are now understood to be actively making what are called "plotter's charts" in their terminology. The cellphone of a person visiting New Delhi can be locked in their beams by sleuths and even if he does not discuss confidential issues, the signals can track his movements.

Moreover, if you pay the linesman who is sitting near the telephone exchange a little money, he can arrange a parallel connection and you can easily tap the conversation. No matter that tapped phone calls are not accepted as primary evidence in Indian courts.

It does not matter whether you are a corporate rival, political informer, private detective, a jilted lover or simply a voyeur, new technology is available to assist you in accomplishing a 'mission'. All it takes is the right equipment and the bank account to support the investment. On offer spyware from a measly Rs 2,000 to Rs 50,000 has flooded the Capital's sordid underbelly.

One can buy a pair of spectacles, a car key, wrist watch, a SIM card, button camera in a shirt or chewing gum packet, a USB drive which all double up as listening devices. Spy cameras installed inside mangal sutras, necklaces, earrings, iPods and various other fashion accessories and electronic devices costs between Rs 8,000-Rs 50,000 depending on the cameras range and focus. There are even 20 megapixel cameras which have both audio and video recording facilities and good memory capacity and can cost about Rs 10,000.

Undeniably, phone-tapping is undertaken the world over for reasons of national security or serious crimes. In the US the National Security Agency is authorized by a Presidential order to monitor, without search warrants, phone calls, e-mails, Internet activity, text messaging, and other communication involving any party believed by the NSA to be outside the U.S without referral to the courts.

In the UK bugging is usually carried out by MI5, MI6, GCHQ and the police and most people are targeted on suspicion of terrorism or serious crime. Also, a total of 653 State bodies, including 474 Councils, have the power to intercept private communications. In fact, several countries have grappled unsuccessfully with the issue of phone-tapping and privacy.

In some countries, independent bodies have been appointed to adjudicate disputes. In Canada, there is a privacy commissioner for the task. In New Zealand, an ombudsman plays the role while in the UK, a Data Protection Tribunal has been appointed for this purpose.

Notably, methods to prevent tapping are also available but not many use these as it involves the use of debugging instrument and scramblers which are cost prohibitive, thereby keeping people away.

Alas, despite assertions by successive Governments regarding introduction of a new-age legislation and setting up of an organisation to oversee telecom companies, we do not appear to have travelled very far towards ensuring privacy and a fair deal for telecom subscribers. As, with most laws, there continues to be a gap between the law and its enforcement.

Undeniably, the Gadkari 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, privacy and grievance redress will become more and more contentious as it involves the basic issue of human rights. Questions rarely addressed by Parties.

In sum, in a milieu where paranoia is the hallmark of governance, both at the Central and State level, access to tapes, records and information held by our polity and bureaucrats would provide urgent much-needed enlightenment and entitlement to the aam aadmi to not only stay ‘connected’ and fight corruption but also have public money being properly utilized in development and improvement of the country.

In this murky political world where the winner takes it all, the time has come for the Government to prescribe a fresh set of guidelines barring “illegal” tapping phones. Or else it could turn into a scandalous “political tool and stock-in trade practice’. What gives?  ----- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)