The whistleblowers
New Delhi   23-Aug-2010

The Union Cabinet's recent decision to legalise protection to those who help unearth instances of corruption, hopefully, will go a long way in cleansing our governing system. The Public Interest Disclosure and Protection to Persons Making the Disclosure Bill, 2010 provides the Central Vigilance Commission powers of a civil court to hand down harsh penalty to people revealing the identity of whistleblowers. The Bill, likely to be tabled in the monsoon session, will cover employees of central, state and public sector enterprises. It is expected to encourage disclosure of information in public interest and people who expose corruption in Government. It is a fact that there are hardly any establishments which are untainted in today's India. This has immensely dented people's faith in the system. This deadly mix of corruption and subsequent erosion of public faith in governance portends an ominous future for our country. In this context any small step in the direction of stemming, if not eliminating, corruption is most welcome. The information provided by the general public has helped in exposing misdeeds in the past. Our past is dotted with innumerable instances where the information has been stifled or the informer done to death by vested interests. Even those who are at the helm of affairs, "such as ministers, have been involved in such cases. The incident in which a complainant against a Gujarat minister who was involved in illegal mining was killed in daylight in front of the High court shows to what extend the corrupt would go to cover-up their deeds.

Since public memory is short, it is worth remembering Shanmugam Manjunath, the IOC officer who exposed Stealing of petrol and Satyendra Dubey, the National Highways Authority engineer, both of whom had to pay with their lives. If people are willing to pass on information on corruption, the state has every duty to protect them. Those who try to expose corruption in Government set-up often expose themselves to harassment and torture from their superiors. The Bill envisages punishment to those very superiors who indulge in toying with the lives of their subordinates just because they dare to raise some uncomfortable questions. One can only hope that this provision would not be watered down by the time it becomes an Act. We are used to political parties vowing to "root out' corruption in their election manifestos only to see them perpetuating the system. So there is every reason for us to be cynical. But one should beware the tendency to misuse the right to leak information since it can involve the very security of the nation. It is for the authorities to assess the worthiness and credibility of the information leaked to them. This calls for highest degree of moral standards and, of course, an open mind. Let us sincerely hope our rulers will stand up to the test of times.