DR. S. AUSAF SAIED VASFI supports Vice President Hamid Ansari’s plea for making our Intelligence apparatus accountable to a Standing Committee of Parliament. He cites the less-than-irresponsible attitude of our law and order machinery on the vague reports of the apparatus.
Has what the Vice President of India said in New Delhi on January 19 been heard in the corridors of power? Before proceeding further, let us ask ourselves what provoked or compelled Mr. M. Hamid Ansari to say what he said while delivering the fourth R.N. Kao Memorial Lecture.
What the Vice President said is: Our Intelligence apparatus must be accountable, accountable before a parliament standing committee.
COSMETIC ACCOUNTABILITY
Were they, till date, not accountable before anybody? No. They were accountable before their stiff-necked superiors and professional ministers concerned. What this cosmetic accountability did, and has hitherto been doing, must be asked from the victims, mostly from the Muslim minority.
“The candidate is involved in subversive activity.” This crisp remark by the semi-literate constable or head constable destroyed many a budding Muslim career after August 15, 1947. The self-pleased minister, clad in well-starched ‘galaband’ as the media regularly observed in the case of the former Union Home Minister, Mr. Shivraj Patil, would rarely question the veracity of the perverse report.
Now after this first official loud thinking rather call to make Intelligence apparatus accountable for its doings and the alleged misdoings, one can hope the biased, the prejudiced and the indoctrinated sections would think twice before their less-than-responsible instinct overtakes them. This is what making the Intelligence accountable to Legislature means.
As Mr. Ansari rightly pointed out, the Intelligence apparatus in the United States, United Kingdom, Poland, Norway and Argentina is accountable before their respective Legislatures. This proposed step by the Indian government is likely to ensure legislative oversight and accountability. To quote the Vice President: “Given these models of calibrated openness to ensure oversight and accountability, there is no reason why a democratic system like ours should not have a Standing Committee of Parliament on Intelligence that could function at least on the pattern of other Standing Committees. Since internal and external intelligence do not in our system report to the same minister, the possibility of entrusting this work to the Standing Committee of Home Affairs may not need the requirement.”
NEW ROADMAP
It is fair to recall that not long ago, the Union Home Minister, with focus on Internal Security came out with a new roadmap for the Intelligence Bureau (IB). How our Intelligence machinery should function was Mr. P. Chidambaram’s key point.
Our feeling is Mr. Ansari shot in the bull’s eye. The Muslim victims of the IB have long-standing grievances which deserve to be addressed. To our utter surprise, Mr. S.M. Mushrif, former I.G. of Maharashtra has in his book Who Killed Karkare? suspected the hand of I.B. in the murder of Mr. Hemant Karkare in the wake of Pakistani terrorists’ attack on Taj Mahal Hotel. If the former police officer is correct, the disquieting issue needs to be looked into at the highest level, simply because the I.B. is supposed to be a highly prestigious body of the country.
FAULTY INTELLIGENCE
What faulty intelligence does, and can do, the Vice President gave an example of US attack on Iraq in March 2003. Due to oversight mechanisms, it came to light that a Downing Street memo of July 23, 2002 had actually observed after discussions in Washington about how “intelligence and facts were being fixed around policy.”
Explaining the point in the Indian context, Mr. Hamid said: The traditional answer and prevailing practice of oversight by the concerned minister and Prime Minister and general accountability of the later to Parliament was accepted as adequate in an earlier period but is now considered amorphous and fails to meet the requirement of good governance in an open society.
In today’s changed environment, the Vice President justified his call for greater oversight because concerns have arisen on the “extent of supervision” over agencies by the political executive and the possibility of their misuse by them. “Both concerns emanate from the absence of specific accountability on these matters, to the legislature.”
What havoc the said absence of focused accountability and effective oversight has played can be explained particularly by the victims in the minority community. Just a few examples: Till the Supreme Court of India declared passport a part and parcel of fundamental rights, Muslim boys and girls were kept denied of the normal travel facility, even much after Partition. Was this denial accidental or deliberate, we really do not know.
In our country, police and Intelligence are considered twin sisters. When the excesses of the BMP and PAC were, in the past, brought to the notice of ministers, more often than not, the response was: any stringent action against the men-in-uniform would affect their morale. This was the past thinking at the highest echelons.
Till recently, we are pained to point out, once again, it looked as if Muslims were directly or indirectly connected with the ISI of Pakistan. Without any compunction, a canard was floated that most of the Muslim youth were related to foreign modules working in the country. The natural result of this insensate crowing painted a horrible picture of the Muslim minority as if they are suspect, not true to the salt, unpatriotic, or one belonging to the proverbial fifth column.
Mr. L.K. Advani promised several times to bring out a white paper on the alleged Muslim involvement in the Pak-funded terrorist activities. But sadly he did not, or could not, fulfil his promise. Now he can.
NOXIOUS WEEDS
The mother of the Saffron has planted its boisterous boys in almost each and every key ministry and department. It is a known fact but the Congress could never succeed in weeding out these noxious weeds.
In the recent past Muslim intellectuals, youth and social activists have been arrested in A.P., Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, M.P., Rajasthan and U.P. The biased section in the Intelligence and police picked up Muslims in these States without using imagination and thinking about the consequences of their irresponsible acts. The Muslim leadership repeatedly pointed out the after-effects of this mindless policy to the Congress. But it preferred to use its Nelsonian eye.
Not long ago, the Karnataka government freed four Muslim youth as it had no concrete proof against them. Now last week the Fast Track Court of Mumbai has set free Maulana Ghulam Yahya, absolving him of all the cooked up charges filed by the Maharashtra ATS. He was a respectable person, performing the duties of Imam in the State Haj House. When a Judge sets free a suspect, an accused, a person whose fair name has been unnecessarily destroyed by the Intelligence and police, does it not occur to the latter for what reason they have destroyed his life, his family, education of children and all that?
The truth is that making Intelligence agencies accountable was long over due. At the end of the day, this step is sure to strengthen the democratic ethos of Bharat.