Life after leaks

The Gujral government is developing an obsession for messengers when it should be concerned about the messages they bear. Every leak to the...

The Gujral government is developing an obsession for messengers when it should be concerned about the messages they bear. Every leak to the Press now has to be scrupulously investigated. The route taken by information is more important than the information itself. It is as if the Official Secrets Act has taken precedence over all other Acts. So long as the sanctity of the former is maintained, it would appear, the nation will be adequately governed. Or, more specifically, governance can proceed only if the government is allowed to carry on with its work without having to cover its rear all the time. But the United Front8217;s rump would be entirely safe if it could only settle its contradictions, chivvy the bureaucracy back into the steel frame and get on with the business of governing. To ask the media to explain itself is absurd. Its business to go after leaks and publish information in public interest. On the contrary, it is the government8217;s duty to explain itself every time its absurdities become public information.

In the Tata tapes case, the issue was obviously the manner in which industry, the political establishment and the bureaucracy cooperate to form an extra-constitutional power structure. But as the days went by, this grouping tried to deflect the heat from it by changing the issue. It insisted that a single case of intrusion into the private sphere of an individual was far more worrying than this huge nexus as powerful as the official machinery of governance. Security agencies have been asked to investigate how this newspaper managed to source the Tata tapes, not how a clutch of officials, politicians and businessmen sought to subvert the system in Assam. Now, the government is set on ferreting out the source of the extracts of the Jain Commission report. It would find far more useful occupation in seeing to it that this interim report is tabled and thereby give the issue a decent burial. The facts of the case first became common knowledge, and thereafter became boring. Unless Justice Jain8217;s six-year labour contains fresh revelations, it is of no continuing value. In fact, it remains useful 8212; just politically useful 8212; only so long as it remains protected by the Official Secrets Act and can be selectively leaked.

At this rate, Gujral will have to set up a whole new ministry 8212; let us call it the Ministry of Information Routing 8212; to track down all the bits of data that seem to cascade out of this government. In a throwback to the Emergency days 8212; which Gujral should remember rather well 8212; the Press Information Bureau could start authenticating all information with its stamp. Every leak would be followed up and its source diligently plugged, and the government could bumble on peacefully through its lifespan. On the other hand, a Ministry for United Front Unity would be far more useful. It would make leaks counterproductive and also see to it that the government makes real headway in its job. But perhaps that is expecting too much. In an interview on the UP crisis, Gujral actually divulged the proceedings of a Cabinet meeting. The media has no problems with such candour, but if the Prime Minister himself freely dispenses official secrets, it will obviously need more than Front unity to stem the tide.