Beware of the Global Watchdog: WikiLeaks

Beware of the Global Watchdog, the WikiLeaks!

 (Thomas D’Silva)
Vaishali (Ghaziabad), March 25: The cold war world used to the KGB and CIA is waking up to the new global watchdog- the WikiLeaks, headed by its self-proclaimed founder-spokesman, Julian Assange. And it is making headlines and causing many a headaches to politicians and embassy officials over the slips of tongues and related cables.

Addressing the staff and students of National Institute of Social Communication and Research Training (NISCORT), Mahendra Dev, the Editor of Political Power spoke at length on WikiLeaks, the cyber espionage and its political fallout in India, here today. The newspaper, the Hindu has been publishing since March 18, everyday, ‘selective’ contents from WikiLeaks on ‘Cash-for-Vote’ episode of 2008. And it is threatening to publish more embarrassing ones out of 3000 odd cable contents it has in the days to come.  The politicians too are not far behind when it comes to cash in on chances of this sort.

The parliament set aside the budget and debated on the WikiLeaks on shameful incident of ‘cash-for-vote’ incident. After a slumber of three years, it took some time to warm up. It was all a rhetoric and Urdu couplets, one trying to score over the other... all ‘playing to the gallery’, thanks to the free ‘live’ national coverage the news channels provide. 

It is to be recalled that when the Nuclear Liability Bill was to be passed on July 22, 2008 by the Unite Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, three BJP MPs - Ashok Argal, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahesh Bhagora waved bundles of notes alleging that they were bribed. So a  seven-member committee headed by Kishore Chandra Deo was constituted by the then Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

The committee submitted the report, finding no conclusive evidence against anyone. The recent excerpts of the WikiLeaks which appeared in the Hindu once again exhumed the corpse of the scandal. The leaked cables from the United States embassy officials stationed in India reporting on the ‘cash-for-vote’ make a specific mention of an Indian gentleman proudly stating that Members of Parliament were bought for Rs 10 crores each to support the UPA government. The debate was based on this new revelation.

The debate in the Parliament concluded that the government could neither confirm nor deny the veracity of the cables. Moreover, they do not even stand the scrutiny of law. Mr. Dev, therefore argued- “What is the importance of the WikiLeaks if the publicity of them do not bear fruit”? In this context he explained the history and the objectives of WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks is an international non-profit organisation, launched in 2006, that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistle blowers. Julian Assange, an Australian national is its founder, director and spokesperson. As of now there are over 1500 volunteers with eight members headed by Assange in the advisory board. It won the U.K’s, the Economist’s New Media Award in 2008.

Supporters of WikiLeaks in the media and academia have commended it for exposing state and corporate secrets, increasing transparency, supporting freedom of the press, and enhancing democratic discourse while challenging powerful institutions.  WikiLeaks states that its "primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to people of all regions who wish to reveal unethical behaviour in their governments and corporations."

While the purpose of WikiLeaks is noble- to bring about transparency in diplomacy and improve upon the governance, the ethical question of eavesdropping remains. Mr. Dev concluded saying, “Journalism has to be made creative as it is in the case of WikiLeaks. Yet you have to decide where you draw the line”. Meanwhile, the bold and inquisitive will be sniffing their noses in search of so called ‘classified’ and ‘confidential’ information.