Willing slaves

Twice, in the last 20 months, Ram Jethmalani tried to lift the veil of secrecy from government functioning and offered the public full access to allofficial records under his charge. As the Urban Affairs Minister in 1998, he tried introducing far-reaching changes in his ministry to expedite decision-making and render it more transparent. Since corruption thrives on slow-moving files and secrecy, his bureaucrats became resentful and took their revenge with the MS Shoes case by offering selective leaks to the Press alleging that Jethmalani had speeded up decision in that case for a bribe. Jethmalani retaliated by not only offering the case file for public scrutiny but also publicly announcing on October 10, 1998, unhindered right to information with regard to his own ministry. Any citizen, including those unconnected with particular cases, could demand the inspection of any documents and files of his ministry by merely filing a simple form worth Rs 5. Only those files were to be restricted on which a decision had yet to be taken or those pertaining to cases under vigilance enquiry. The charge for inspecting a file was a mere Rs 10. Under this order, it wasthe duty of the nodal officer to provide any file thus demanded within five days of the request. Any amount of information could even be photocopied at the rate of Rs 2 per page.

Not surprisingly, the bureaucrats got into a frenzy. Ministers and MPs, cutting across party lines, also panicked and accused Jethmalani of being impetuous. The Prime Minister himself, along with his Cabinet Secretary Prabhat Kumar, took the brazen initiative to quash Jethmalani8217;s order. On October 16, 1998, Kumar sent an urgent missive informing the Special Secretary, Ministry of Urban Affairs, that the Prime Minister had himself instructed that Jethmalani8217;s order was not to be implemented.

The PMO justified this on the ground that the OSA forbade such open access to government documents. This despite the fact that the BJP had promised in its election manifesto that it would scrap the OSA and replace it with a Right to Information Act. The bureaucratic backlash was understandable. But at least the media should have supported and celebrated such a radical move. Instead, our newspapers began to gleefully publish all kinds of allegations and attacks on Jethmalani spoonfed to them by the ministerial babus. So much so that when, under pressure from the IAS lobby, Jethmalani was shifted to the Law Ministry so that the entire issue of freedom of information could be shoved under the carpet, there was hardly any protest from journalists.

But this time around, the media has gone even further in snubbing and ridiculing Jethmalani for flouting the OSA. He is being portrayed as someone unfit to hold a ministerial position 8212; all because he brought to light some cases of corruption in high places. Most newspapers and even TV channels ignored the fact that, no matter why Jethmalani fell out with Soli Sorabjee and the Chief Justice of India, he was once again hammering on the need for transparency and accountability in governance.

The media has focussed obsessively on Jethmalani8217;s 8220;weaknesses8221; and personally traits: his 8220;tempestuousness8221;, his 8220;lack of restraint and discretion8221;, his 8220;excessive individuality8221; and his going against 8220;the idea of collective responsibility8221;. The entire spectrum of the media hasside-tracked the real issue and offered him pious sermons advising him to act with appropriate restraint. Is forthrightness a bigger fault than being corrupt? Does 8220;collective responsibility8221; mean putting a shroud of 8220;official secrecy8221; on the misdoings of people in seats of power? Granted Jethmalani is no Mahatma. To me his most serious failing is that he has chosen to ally with a goonda party like the Shiv Sena and has come to Rajya Sabha on the strength of its support. Yet, if he is ready to stake his political career challenging the undemocratic nature of the OSA, lovers of democracy must support him to the end on this issue.

In the history of post-independent India, innumerable times, well-known journalists have obliged friendly bureaucrats and politicians through select leaks from 8220;classified8221; files. Such planted stories have made and unmade many a political career under the garb of exposing corruption. Even in Jethmalani8217;s case, when his bureaucrats in the Urban Affairs Ministry leaked certain documents to his arch enemy, Subramaniam Swamy, as well as selected journalists in an attempt to ease him out of the ministry, nobody in the media seemed particularly upset nor did anyone demand that the concerned bureaucrats be sacked for violating the Official Secrets Act. Why? Because this is how many journalists make their careers 8212; through access to sources which surreptitiously plant information for partisan purposes. In the 1980s, the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, A. R. Antulay, was humiliated and hounded out of office precisely by planted stories. He was targeted not because he was the most corrupt chief minister in Indiabut mainly because the Maratha lobby in Maharashtra could not stomach the idea of a Muslim being made the chief minister of their state by Indira Gandhi. They carried a vicious campaign against Antulay through specific newspapers till he was sacked. This was celebrated as the victory of investigative journalism.

The issue is not to save Jethmalani from humiliation and marginalisation. Itis the willingness of the media to allow its own professional rights to be trampled upon repeatedly. A country, in which respected editors and journalists have so imbibed the culture of slavery that they have come to believe in the sacredness of 8220;official secrecy8221;, cannot possibly enjoy a free Press and a functioning democracy.

The writer is editor of Manushi8217;

The real issue behind the humiliation of Jethmalani is the media8217;s readiness to allow its own professional rights to be trampled upon repeatedly>