The Hindu : Authoritarian impulses

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 22, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - Leader Page Articles

Authoritarian impulses

By Kuldip Nayar

POTA is wrong in concept. Its execution is bound to be faulty.

AT TIMES I fear that the Vajpayee Government may unwittingly go the Indira Gandhi way. Failures on many fronts made her impose the Emergency (1975-77), gag the press and erode democratic values. She began with a preventive detention law, MISA, to suppress civil liberties as the present rulers have done by enacting POTA. Long before the Emergency, media men, critics and human rights activists were picked up here and there to pave the way for it. Similar instances are increasingly coming to light. Strange that the present rulers, most of whom were victims of the Emergency, do not seem to realise that their methods are harsh and often go beyond the contours of the law.

That there cannot be another Emergency goes without saying. It will not be legally possible. People will not accept it. There is more vigilance than before because of the NGOs. Yet, conditions can be created where arbitrary actions are taken with impunity. Indira Gandhi subverted established procedures to create the environment of fear. Now, the Vajpayee Government is stepping into chartless territory where authority is becoming the law.

Several civil rights activists, including some journalists, were picked up by the special branch of the Delhi police the other day. It was an open meeting of a committee to convene a larger gathering on Indo-Nepal relations. Some 25 policemen in civvies appeared from nowhere and took the activists forcibly to a nearly police station. They were kept in three rooms where there was no electricity. None of them was allowed to phone relatives or friends, a violation of the Supreme Court guidelines which say a detenu can demand the presence of his lawyer. The activists were not interrogated or engaged in a dialogue. After three hours, they were released without any explanation. However, one policeman sheepishly said: "There were orders from above".

Who gave those orders? Is there a Government within the Government? Can any citizen be picked up without warrant? Personal liberty is guaranteed by the Constitution. If any legislation gives untrammelled powers to the police, it is POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act). But the activists were not held under POTA. Had this been the case, they would not have been let off within three hours. What the authorities did was sheer misuse of powers. It is obvious that the Government is administering a warning that anyone in its bad books can be treated the way the activists were. There should be loud and wide protests so that those experimenting with authoritarian ways know they will not go unchallenged. The dangerous aspect is that if such is the attitude of the Centre, what will be the plight of critics and dissenters in the States, where Chief Ministers have become a law unto themselves.

POTA has only given them unquestionable power. Vaiko's detention in Tamil Nadu is one example. The law is wrong in concept. Its execution is bound to be faulty. Many MPs warned the Government at the time of its introduction that it would be misused and that political opponents would be the victims. Still the Government went ahead and got it endorsed at a joint session of Parliament after the Rajya Sabha rejected it. Whether the use of POTA by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, in the case of Mr. Vaiko was unwarranted or not is debatable. But then the BJP has no face to criticise her. The party is the flag-bearer of the dictatorial law. Politics, as it prevails in the country these days, will see to it that opponents are punished.

Fortunately, the misuse of POTA has come to the fore after Mr. Vaiko's detention. He is an ally of the Vajpayee Government. Had there been a human rights activist in his place, the BJP would have probably justified the detention. The party describes Mr. Vaiko's detention as untenable. Still it does not admit that POTA is the antithesis of democracy. The NDA's announcement that the Act may be modified to strengthen the safeguards of an individual's liberty is a sad commentary on its earlier assurances that the measure cannot be misused. Political expediency knows no safeguards.

However, Mr. Vaiko has played into Ms. Jayalalithaa's hands by repeatedly supporting the LTTE openly and it has evoked little sympathy. It is not only because of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination that the organisation is shunned. It is also because of the apprehension that the LTTE's demand for an independent country will ultimately threaten Tamil Nadu's integrity. The LTTE has been banned as a terrorist organisation in the country. Mr. Vaiko has not helped his cause by aligning himself with terrorism.

I do not know whose pressure has worked on New Delhi — America's or that of multinationals? The CBI, which made a mess of the Bofors gun scandal, is making a mess of cases relating to the Bhopal gas tragedy. It has tried to water down charges against Union Carbide, responsible for the tragedy.

After more than 17 years, it has changed the charge against Warren Anderson, then chief of Union Carbide, from homicide to negligence. Homicide is punishable by 10 years imprisonment while in the case of negligence the maximum sentence is two years. It is an open secret that the Centre has indicated to the CBI not to jeopardise the investment climate.

That the Government should change its mind because of investment is not surprising. What is surprising is the absence of protest. Members of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Karmachari Sangh and Gas Peedit Nirasharit Morcha recently held in Delhi a dharna and a hunger strike. The public response was dismal. The media almost ignored the dharna. A tragedy makes news, not the relief and rehabilitation of the victims.

In December 1984, five lakh people woke up in Bhopal to a deadly gas leak. More than 8,000 died instantly. The toll by now is well over 20,000. More than 30 survivors of the tragedy die every month. Well over 1.20 lakh survivors are in desperate need of medical attention for exposure-induced diseases. Tens of thousands of children born to exposed parents suffer from growth retardation and worse. Thousands of families are on the brink of starvation because the breadwinners are too sick to work. The Government negotiated a settlement that cost Union Carbide only 43 cents per share, roughly Rs. 10 at that time. About 25 per cent of the victims got a paltry Rs. 25,000 each for injuries they will carry till they die.

The BJP-led Government at the Centre has done another quixotic thing: the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Bhopal has declared that residents of the 20 municipal wards of Bhopal will be given compensation from the balance of the settlement fund. There has been no evidence of exposure of these residents. Tests confirm that. The reason for this step is the BJP's policy of wooing the Hindu vote. The only qualification the residents seem to have is that they are mostly Hindus.

The tragedy took place nearly 18 years ago. But there is hardly any official follow-up. Union Carbide is primarily to blame but the Indian Government's complicity in the crime is most glaring. It has been wilfully negligent in prosecuting the company and its officials.

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