The Space for Whistle Blowers
- Time for deep articulation in Manipur -

Amar Yumnam *

Accountability and transparency have been the buzzwords of regulation and administration for at least two decades both globally and nationally. In India, the Right to Information Act has been a landmark legislation in this direction, though in Manipur the impact has not been felt much due to local reasons of mugging and other threats to life.

Globally there have been many celebrity cases of whistle-blower activity. The efforts of Ingvar Bratt who exposed the illegal weapons exports of Swedish firm Bofors, Cynthia Cooper who exposed the accounting malpractice of WorldCom, and Sherron Watkins who exposed Enron are ready examples. But besides these celebrity cases, there have been marked rise in whistle blower activity around the world in recent years.

In Manipur too, the recent brutal killing of a civil servant and his subordinates by personnel of an organisation presumably fighting for a national cause has brought to our doorsteps the issue of role of whistle blowers and the response of administration to this whistle blower activity.

Whistle Blowing: To facilitate our discussion we may attempt a definition of whistle blowing activity. Someone may be called a whistle blower if she/he endeavours to prevent harm to others, not herself/himself, after reasonably convincing herself/himself of the illegality and harmful implications of certain acts by someone else in the regulatory authority.

Here the whistle blower is driven by the sense of safety and welfare of others rather than self security, and by the commitment to enhance the rule of law and democratic values. While whether the recent death of the civil servant is the price of whistle blowing is something history would judge, it is important to emphasise that Manipur now passes through a very critical period.

Manipur Scenario: That lots of administrative nonsense prevails in this land of jewels is known to all despite the tall claims by the powers that be. The common people bear the brunt of this nonsense and administrative corruptibility while having no alternative or avenues for correcting this degeneration. It is as if only a few, collective few and not lone individuals, can ever think of reversing this social menace. Here arises the role of whistle blowers.

But to think of becoming and actually becoming in live a whistle blower in Manipur's context is a genuinely life threatening engagement. The threat emanates from all angles - the state agencies have produced over the years a strong vested interest thriving only on sucking the public's blood, while the non-state actors as well have acquired similar characteristics in recent years.

Both these have the capability to kill any whistle blower and get away with that. The issue before the public now is whether it is in the general interest to allow the situation to linger for ever. Well, any reasonable soul would say that it is not. This leads us to the need for creating an environment conducive to whistle blowing so that the State slowly escapes from the present quick-sand to another of stable plane.

Environment for Whistle Blowers: While the powers that be in Manipur now may not be willing to create an environment conducive to the whistle blowers, they cannot escape their responsibility as players representing the state and the people to respond to the call of the times.

We need to provide space for more than one whistle blower in the current scenario of Manipur to emerge. The emergence of this force, however, depends on many factors.

First, the very governance environment should be such that the whistle blowers are given adequate legal and other protection.

Secondly, once the whistle blower's activity is proved to be genuine, there should be appropriate rewards for that. While these two relate to the whistle blower herself/himself, there are other conditions to be satisfied relating to the intended wrong-doer.

While the risks involved in whistle blowing are easily evident, we need to reduce the uncertainties associated with the act. First, the administration should definitively respond to the reports of the whistle blower. Secondly, the penalties for wrong-doing by the regulator/administrator should be loud and clear.

We understand that there can be possibility of whistle blowers with faulty information emerging in an environment which rewards such activities. But we must hasten to add that such administrative costs are preferable to the one where the society degenerates like what is happening today in Manipur.