Heightened jingoism, terrorism, and crisis of demonetisation have weakened our social fabric. To stop the nation from reducing to a sordid existence, we need whistleblowers who blow the lid off authoritative misconduct, writes ANANYA BORGOHAIN
It was one evening when Suddeutsch Zeitung (one of Germany’s top newspapers) journalist Bastian Obermayer was at home that his phone received a very unusual and unexpected message; a message that was going to rattle the world. A sender referring to himself (or herself) as John Doe wanted to share exclusive data. Obermayer asked, “How much data are we talking aboutIJ” The response was, “More than anything you have ever seen.”
What followed then was the largest international investigative journalism project of all time. The investigation into the Panama Papers subsequently entailed 400 journalists from 80 countries, led by Obermayer and his colleague, Frederik Obermaier. Together, all of them led to the revelation of the offshore companies of several heads of states — as well as dictators; blood diamond trafficking; drug and arms industries and the tax havens of the richest and the most powerful lot in the world.
The Panama Papers were perhaps the biggest breakthrough in investigative journalism this year, on the heels of Jeremy Scahill’s exposé of the US Government’s drone programme or even Edward Snowden’s leaking of classified NSA documents a few years ago.
Closer home, the likes of Satyendra Dubey, Shanmugam Manjunath, lalit Mehta, and many more have led pioneering movements that have destabilised the unscrupulous social and political fabric of India. A connecting link among the names mentioned above is also that they were all allegedly murdered in the course of their campaign.
Although the term ‘whistleblower’ has gained popularity only in recent times, it has been in use since time immemorial. The analogy drawn is the reference to the blowing of the whistle by a referee or an umpire to draw attention towards something that is at least ostensibly dangerous.
While the intention of whistleblowers is honourable, their concerns have often robbed them of their right to live freely. Threats, harassment, and even murder of several whistleblowers have been common occurrences. Dubey, who was an engineer by profession, was murdered in November 2003. It was believed that he had leads in a corruption case in the National Highway Authority of India’s Golden Quadrilateral project. In 2005, an Indian Oil Corporation official, Manjunath, was murdered for sealing a petrol pump that was said to be involved in selling adulterated fuel. Mehta, an RTI activist, had exposed widespread corruption at NREGA in Palamu. Police found his mutilated body with a belt hung around his neck and face deformed beyond recognition.
Whistleblowers have the option and right to choose whether they want to work internally or externally. Internally, they raise their issues within the organisation that they are making their accusations against. Externally, a whistleblower can contact a third party with no association with the accused organisation. They generally consider reaching out to the media, the Government, law enforcement agencies, and any other body concerned they deem reliable. While former White House staff member linda Tripp helped reveal the affair between former US President Bill Clinton and intern Monica lewinsky, which led to a campaign against Clinton’s second term, New York City police officer Frank Serpico tried to expose corruption within the police organisation in the State. In order to desist him, he was even shot in the face during a raid. Serpico left the country after that, and later, Al Pacino played him in the 1973 crime film, Serpico. Meryl Streep, on the other hand, played Karen Silkwood in Silkwood. Silkwood was a woman who mysteriously died while she was in the middle of a campaign against Kerr-McGee (an American energy company) about the safety of a nuclear facility.
Obermayer and Obermaier have documented their journey in their book, The Panama Papers, a pacy thriller that keeps the readers on the edge of their seats. This unputdownable book narrates how their leak led to the unrest in Iceland that calmed only after the then Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson resigned. Russian President Vladimir Putin, during the annual phone-in with the nation, sought to clear his name by stating that although the information was correct, they still did not implicate him. While former UK PM David Cameron admitted that he did benefit from his father’s offshore trust and sold the shares just before he became the PM in 2010 , China simply censored the terms ‘Panama Papers’.
At the same time, Obermayer and Obermaier do acknowledge in their book that the offshore accounts are perfectly legal and even useful for legal business and investment. It was the role of Mossack Fonseca — the world’s fourth largest offshore firm — in creating layers of shell companies for many people with these accounts that raised an alarm. Royals, business honchos, legends from the field of sports, senior Government ministers, top banks, entertainers and many more were left red-faced as they cowered in front of public’s indignation.
Two years ago, Glenn Greenwald’s chronicle of Snowden’s story of breaking exclusive information about NSA — and how he had reached out to Greenwald and documentary filmmaker laura Poitras — was published in the form of a book titled, No Place to Hide. The book begins when Greenwald, a renowned lawyer, journalist and writer, receives cryptic messages from a source referring to himself as Cincinnatus (after lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, a Roman farmer who was appointed the dictator of Rome to defend the city against attack in 5 BC ). He later turns out to be Snowden. During the online interactions between Greenwald and Snowden, several scandalous and startling facts are revealed, such as that the US Government could remotely access people’s cellphones and laptops and turn them into listening devices, as well as that the largest internet companies like Google, Yahoo!, Skype, Facebook, Microsoft, YouTube, Apple — had joined an NSA programme through which NSA could collect information directly from their servers.
Snowden, at the same time, is meticulous and insistent that Greenwald has his online interactions encrypted; otherwise, would be a cakewalk for the Government to trace them. After some failed attempts, Poitras joins Greenwald and arranges for a meeting with Snowden in Hong Kong. What then unravels in the book is one astonishing revelation after another.
Another book this year was Scahill’s The Assassination Complex, that made serious revelations about the US Government’s drone programme. Along with his colleagues at the website, The Intercept, and with original content from Greenwald and Snowden (who has written the foreword), Scahill revealed shocking details about America’s secret assassination policy.
The Intercept attained a cache of secret slides that led them to the internal operations of the US military’s captures and kills in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia. The US Government had maintained, at least publicly, that these operations — the air strikes — are an effective alternative to armed forces on the ground. The Government had also assured that these troops were meant only for imminent and serious threats and that almost certainly these strikes will eliminate the anti-social elements. The documents that The Intercept had access to showed that these assassinations were central to US counterterrorism policy, regardless of the method they carried them out in.
It was subsequently revealed that these operations suffered from flawed signals intelligence, miscalculated tolls, failure to extract potentially valuable intelligence from terror suspects. Interestingly, this was carried out by two Presidents through four presidential terms, and was hidden from the public and distanced from the scope of a democratic debate.
Whistleblowing, therefore, in many ways is the call of the hour. At the same time, comes with its own repercussions, often fatal. While Snowden continues to struggle for an asylum in a country, there were various reports about campaigners against the Vyapam scam in India dying mysteriously. The consistent slaughtering of secular Bangladeshi bloggers by religious fundamentalists is another such grim and gory example. In spite of the existence of a law in India to protect whistleblowers, a methodical arrangement that protects them from any unfairness meted out by their employers or any third party does not seem to be serving its purpose.
In India, The Whistle Blowers Protection Act, 2011, equips Indians to investigate suspected or alleged corruption and abuse of power by public servants. At the same time, it also strives to protect someone who exposes alleged misconduct and malpractices in Government bodies, projects and offices. The Bill was approved by the Cabinet of India in order to eliminate corruption in bureaucracy and was passed by the lok Sabha on December 27, 2011. The Rajya Sabha passed it in 2014, making it an Act.
Earlier this month, when former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan raised the questions about the Whistle Blower’s Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2015, he attained a written reply about the primary features of the Act. Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Dr Jitender Singh, pointed out the following features of the Whistle Blower’s Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2015:
From exposing official misconduct to corporate espionage, whistleblowers blow the lid off many things, by often putting their lives at stake. Governments have no right to make self-fulfilling presumptions, more so at the cost of public sentiment and public opinion. As this year showed, heightened jingoism, unstoppable terrorism, and now the crisis of demonetisation have only weakened the social fabric of our fragile nation. In order to strengthen the same and stop the nation from reducing to a sordid existence, we need more whistleblowers and alert volunteers who are concerned enough to blow the lid off authoritative misconduct; and to encourage them to do so, their safety should be ensured with a concern beyond negotiation.
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