Inhuman Rites

Sundry public bodies and persons have joined in the campaign, but most other publications have kept a distance, despite being invited to join in. Many readers and observers also seem to have concluded that this is a motivated campaign, and dont seem overly exercised. In some ways this is a classic case of what proprietors can do in publications when the editorial imperative is emaciated to the point of being non-existent. Public purpose becomes nothing more than a mask for the pursuit of personal objectives or corporate gain. And the newspaper becomes the loudspeaker. In an ironic twist, the editorial adviser who presides (perhaps reluctantly) over this mask and loudspeaker effort is awarded the Padma Bhushan by the government.

 

To the extent that there has been criticism of all this, it has been muted, perhaps because no one wants to take on a press baron. And at least one of the many people whose views have been published by the newspaper chain as part of its campaign, says his views have been distorted and taken out of context. Indeed, he has written in protest to the newspaper, but the paper has not cared to let its readers know this.

Business Standard functions in the same market as The Economic Times, which is one of the publications carrying on this campaign. And at the risk of being accused of joining in an issue against a rival, it published an interview with the enforcement director. The official is under a gag order from the court, so he cannot comment on any specific case, but he put across his views on some of the issues raised in the human rights campaign.

The response from an admittedly select cross-section of our readers was illuminating. They had a surprising commonality of views on the specific case in question, but they were far more vocal on the enforcement directorate.

You dont know what they are like, is the refrain. Here is a sample of the comments: Most officials in the directorate are corrupt; and the money they ask is not small. Of course, they use third degree methods in questioning; they use iron rods to beat you; they keep you awake through the night; and they force you to write confessions that they dictate. In short, this is old-fashioned Indian police zoolum.

I have no way of knowing whether all this is true. But the conviction with which people relate specific cases known to them has a certain force. And there is also the case a few years ago, when someone being questioned by the enforcement directorate in its Lok Nayak Bhavan office in New Delhi jumped out of the window and committed suicide. The matter was brought to the notice of the then finance minister, Dr Manmohan Singh. We dont know what he did, and what happened to the case. But people dont jump out of office windows to their death unless something very wrong is going on in that office.

Whats to be done? Just two things, really. First, scrap the present foreign exchange law. It is draconian, and reminds one of the old dictum that the more laws a country has, the worse it is governed. Indias economic laws have tended to make ordinary people habitual law-breakers. This is true of Fera, of the tax laws, and of many other pieces of legislation that emerged from Indias tryst with leftism. Mr Chidambaram wanted to replace Fera with a milder law, but his government fell. The next finance minister must treat this as priority. Second, if you want to catch the crooked, do so quickly and effectively. Incompetence is as great a crime in a law enforcement agency as crookery.