CAG Report Leakage

CAG Report Leakage

Regular readers of my blogs will be quite familiar with my opposition to scams in general, irrespective of the political affiliations involved in the scam. However, we need to differentiate between investigative journalism and leakage of confidential information by people in power. The former is not merely OK, but actually essential for us, considering our present context. The latter, however, is another matter altogether.

Take the latest example of the CAG report about the CWG mess.

It is perfectly OK for investigative journalists to use their skills to obtain information and expose stuff like payment of bribery, inflation of bills, nepotism, favouritism, etc.

However, when it comes to releasing the CAG report to the media, it is obviously the handiwork of an insider within the bureaucracy. The duty of the people involved in collecting data, investigating people behind it, analysing the data, interpreting the same, and, finally preparing the report is obviously to submit the report to the appropriate authority. In this case, it ought to have reached the Parliament through "The Proper Channel". Instead, it landed up with the media folks BEFORE reaching the parliament.

This is just not acceptable.

In the event of the CAG report being either suppressed or not being acted upon, it will obviously be OK for the investigating journalists to have their say. However, to access the report and release the same without giving the Parliament an opportunity to look into the matter is nothing short of criminal on the part of the people responsible (or should I call them irresponsible) for the despicable leakage of the CAG report. 

I would like to call upon investigative journalists to show the same vigour that they show in indicting the politicians and expose those who are leaking such CAG reports. After all, if the reports can be leaked by Mr. X for a "Good" reason, how long will it take for another Ms. Y to leak another sensitive report to the wrong hands for a "Bad" reason. What will happen if some such sensitive report lands up in the hands of the ISI or some private sector corporate bigwigs or the Chinese or the CIA or Al Qaeda? What guarantee do we have that all such leaks will exclusively be for "Good" reasons?

Regards,

N

---