Is the government sabotaging whistleblowers’ movement?

governancenow mag, Aug 1-15

A law to protect them has been pending ever since Satyendra Dube was killed in Patna in 2003

RTI activist Amit Jethwa’s cold-blooded murder outside the Gujarat high court, a high-security zone, on July 20 is the latest in a series of such killings in recent times. There have been at least three others who lost their lives this year alone for daring to expose corruption involving the high and mighty. In the case of Jethwa, a BJP member of parliament has been named by the family of the deceased, but the suspect has not been questioned so far, let alone be arrested. The reluctance on the part of the police is understandable; they hadn’t bothered to act or provide security to the activist when he complained of the threat to his life while trying to expose illegal mining in the Gir forest area. Much in the similar way Satish Shetty, another RTI activist, lost his life in January this year when he was lynched in broad daylight on the outskirts of Pune, where he lived. Shetty had proved troublesome for the land sharks and their political patrons. Two more RTI activists Shashidhar Mishra of Bihar and Datta Patil of Maharashtra were eliminated this year in the months of February and May, respectively.

But have you heard any politician or a minister, either from the centre or the states where these incidents happened, condemning these killings or promising swift action? No. If that doesn’t move you, here is another shocker. Former Chief Justice of India R C Lahoti recently wrote a letter to Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to tell her how every whistleblower who approached the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), the apex institution entrusted with the task of fighting corruption, came to grief! Having failed to move CVC, Justice Lahoti tells Gandhi in his letter: “Let me take but one example. It would be recalled that after the unfortunate murder of Satyendra Dubey, while working in the NHAI, CVC issued a resolution extending protection to whistleblowers to save them from violent consequences. Information available show that after the issue of this resolution, every whistleblower who approached CVC came to grief, while culprits remain, by and large, unharmed to this day.” Justice Lahoti runs a non-government agency, India Rejuvenation Initiative, to help the whistleblowers.

The resolution Justice Lahoti refers to is the “Government of India Resolution on Public Interest Disclosures and Protection of Informers” issued in 2004 by the CVC after IITian Satyendra Dube was eliminated in Patna in 2003 following his letter to the Prime Minister’s Office complaining about corruption in national highway projects. The central government had, at the time, promised to bring in a law also to protect the whistleblowers. It was never done. When a private member’s bill on the subject was moved in Rajya Sabha in 2006, the member was persuaded to withdraw it on the promise that the government would soon honour its promise. The Law Commission too released a draft bill around that time, which was, of course, dismissed by the RTI activists and other civil society groups as weak and silent on protection or compensation to be provided to the whistleblowers. Finally, after the ghastly murder of Satish Shetty in January this year it seemed the government was waking up from its slumber when a minister, Prithviraj Chavan, disclosed in February that The Public Disclosure and Protection of Informers Bill was being finalized by an empowered group of ministers headed by defence minister A K Antony. Curiously, the proposed bill, which is supposed to be ready and may be introduced in the monsoon session of parliament, is not available in public domain. Worse, a civil society activist has been trying hard for several months to get access to this draft bill but neither the government nor the Central Information Commission has so far come to his help.

Does the government really want to help people fight corruption? Our experience shows that the trail in big-ticket corruption cases often leads to the high and mighty who control the governments and every conceivable trade and industry. Transparency and probity threaten their very existence! Why the pretense then? Let it be a free for all. At least we would be saving some of our most public-spirited individuals from meeting a ghastly end.