When Spies Rule The World
By K.P.Sasi
07 May, 2012
Newzfirst.com
Hitler had a large number of spy force. This dictator was most paranoid about the civil society reactions against him. Therefore, he employed a dedicated spy force to track all details of dissent as well as details of the Jew community and the communists in Germany. Despite socialist pretensions, unfortunately, Joseph Stalin was also a similar paranoid dictator. He also employed a close watch on his own population, leaders and members of the civil society through an official spy group. The KGB, the official spy wing of the Soviet Union drew maximum powers in this process to dictate their commands of their interests even on the communist party leaders. The communist leaders like Bukharin, Kamnev, Zinovev, Trotsky and dozens of others who built the Russian revolution along with com. Lenin were subjected to state violence under Joseph Stalin, thanks to the efficient spy force under him. Joseph Stalin is no figure in Russia today. Even the last testament of Lenin which stated that `Stalin is rude as well as authoritarian and must be removed from the General Secretary post of the Communist Party’ is published in Russia after several decades of suppressing this historical document. However, Joseph Stalin’s photo comes even today in the protests of communists in Kerala and West Bengal. Perhaps this would be the last murmurs of defense of massacre of thousands of people and their families who marched to build the Russian revolution.
Iranian dictator, Shah of Iran ruled Iran for decades only due to the power of his `spy force’. All dissent was reported to him. Students who participated in the protests in different countries against the dictatorship of the Shah of Iran faced the firing squad as soon as they reached Iran. He was also backed conveniently by the US imperialism. When his powers fell, the spies were confused about their own targets of spying.
The US spy network, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) played a different and sophisticated role. This was shaped by their own role in history, through their attempts to dismantle governments of other countries who did not bow down to the United States, so that puppet governments of American interests could be established. Earlier, they tried to kill the heads of nations. President Allende of Chile was only one such target. Later, they found that you can manipulate the dissent organisations to do the job. Osama Bin Laden was discovered by the American empire to do such a dirty work against the Soviet Union. They also tried to conduct direct wars in many countries, in their desperate game of controlling their economic interests by controlling other nations. However, when history progressed, they found that advocacy with the bureaucrats, politicians and opinion making lobby could do a better job. The details are available in a famous book called `Confessions of an Economic Hit Man’. If you go by this logic, we must wonder about our own Prime Minister who had no political history before he became a minister. He was only a World Bank employee. The United States did not need a war like what they managed in Afghanistan or Iraq to conquer the Indian State. They did it in a more subtle fashion. When you look at the nuclear deal, any sensible Indian who can penetrate to the facts can understand that the war in India is already over between American imperialism and the Indian subcontinent. Manmohan is prepared to bow down not only to any American interest, but also South Korean interests like POSCO. Why do you need to spend so much money for a war like Afghanistan or Iraq to put up your puppet Government, when you can do the same with much less money and credibility in a sophisticated manner? Even today, the American spies are much better equipped than their counterparts elsewhere.
But the American spy cannot be duplicated elsewhere. They have a public credibility through a large number of American novels and Hollywood films. Agent 007 James Bond is an example. He can even spy on his lover and kill her and become a hero. An Indian counterpart hero will not dare to do that. Some compassion and forgiveness is expected out of him due to the eastern culture.
But the Governments in the eastern countries have not excelled in the art of spying on their civilians when compared to the work done by the CIA. The recent debate on the email spying under the Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy is one such example.
Well known journalist Viju V. Nair broke a major story on the art of spying on the Muslim community by the Kerala Government. On November 3, 2012, K. K. Jaya Mohan, the Special Branch Superintendent of Police, sent a letter on behalf of ADGP of Kerala Police, A. Hemachandran to the Asst. Commander of High-tech Crime Enquiry Cell. The letter stated: `Please find enclosed a copy of the e-mail ids of individuals who have connection with SIMI activities. You are directed to identify the individuals behind the e-mail ids contained in the list by verifying the registration and log-in details with concerned e-mail service providers and forward the names and addresses of the individuals who own the e-mail ids and furnish the report to this office urgently’.
When Madhyamam weekly published this issue of e-mail surveillance, the immediate response of the Chief Minister was that the SIMI connection mentioned in the letter issued by K.K Jayamohan was a `mistake’. But no action was taken on the concerned police officers. Instead the Hi-Tech cell sub-inspector S. Biju, who is again a Muslim, was suspended. The charge on him was not that he was responsible for spying, but that he was instrumental in leaking out the information about spying. The Government is clear that the system of spying must be well protected.
While the Government upholds its right to spy its population, the recent events are even more disturbing. In an act to justify themselves, human rights activist lawyer, S. Shahnawas was taken into custody, on the pretext of SIMI connections. His arrest was made by the `Hi-tech Cell’ of the Kerala Crime Branch for conspiring to leak intelligence communication in the E-mail surveillance issue. Demanding his immediate release along with immediate return of all his files and work related documents without any conditions, well known human rights activists, lawyers and journalists have asserted in a statement in Delhi: `The arrest of Advocate Shahnawas is an attack on the very process of law and an attempt to stifle the voice of dissent. Targeting and implicating lawyers in spurious cases encroaches upon the right to access legal aid without fear. It is a clear attempt to also demoralize and intimidate Advocate Shahnawas’s clients – many of them are victims of communal witch hunt.’
Instead of an open apology for the communal witch hunt through e-mail spying, The Oommen Chandy Government is trying to get new victims from the minorities connecting them with the e-mail issue. The provocation against Advocate Shahnawas as being admitted by the authorities is that he played a role in bringing out the e-mail issue with Viju V. Nair in an attempt to communalise the issue. Anybody with the right frame of mind can understand who is playing the communal card. If Oommen Chandy wishes to maintain a secular image, immediate action has to be taken on those who are responsible for violating the privacy rights of his electorate and not action on those who are responsible for bringing out the story to the public.
The response of the Chief Minister on the issue of e-mail surveillance was purely technical, saying that some names were dropped in the article published in Madhyamam weekly and pointed out some errors. Since it is easier for the Chief Minister to get access to the actual information than Viju V. Nair, there is no need to contest that point. But the real debate should be on the next two responses of the Chief Minister: 1. That the surveillance was a `routine exercise’ and therefore, there is no need to make a hue and cry on this, 2. Madhyamam weekly is trying to communalise the issue. These are the real issues that must be debated in Kerala.
The real shame for Kerala brought out by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy is the statement that surveillance is a `routine exercise’. Here is a Chief Minister who has the guts to tell the civil society of Kerala that his Government along with his police machinery has a right to invade into the privacy of anybody on the pretext of national security. Perhaps he should be reminded that the real problem of security of the nation which comprises of people is such exercises of power by the Government and its executive force. The Chief Minister should also remember that even the former American President Nixon was brought down from his powers for having used electronic equipments for spying in the famous Watergate controversy. Invasion of privacy of the citizens of this country is a regular game that the Indian State conducts on its citizens. Oommen Chandy must also remember that it was on such a matter that Chief Minister Ramakrishna Hegde had to come out his powers in Karnataka.
During the earlier days, the system of spying by the State was limited. One f my activist friends had a problem of receiving opened letters from the post office regularly a few decades back. At that time, he wrote to the post-master that `I do not mind if you allow anybody to read my letters. But please ask them to paste the letter back in their previous condition before the letters are delivered to me’. After that he never received opened letters. Though this was the situation of the earlier days in India, with electronic communication, it has come to a stage that any private communication can become the `routine surveillance exercise’ of another section. It is time that the people of this country ask a serious question to their rulers: `Excuse me, do we have a right to communicate among ourselves without your intervention?’
But the politically conscious people of Kerala are still waiting to see the results of this game because the real victims of this affair are the minorities. Out of 268 people whose e-mails have been surveiled, 258 people are Muslims. The question here is that in a state where only 26 per cent of the population are Muslims, why 95 percent of the surveilled are Muslims? Who is playing the communal card here? Is it Madhyamam weekly, Advocate Shahnawas or Oommen Chandi? The answer is obvious to any thinking citizen.
The last argument of the Chief Minister is that only the user-names and the log-in details of the e-mail ids were scrutinized and the companies will not provide the passwords of the 268 people. This argument is childish. Everybody knows that if the companies provide the log in details, it is easy for anybody to read the e-mails. Hence, the privacy of the citizens is violated not just by the Government and the police, but also the companies. This invasion of privacy violates the basic rights of the citizens guaranteed under Part III of the Indian Constitution including Articles 14, 15, 17 and 21. By asserting his right to invade on the privacy of the individuals, Chief Minister Oommen Chandi is only trying to wear a mask of a spy called James Bond. The only difference here is that the victims are not the Russians, but the Muslims, and others who support the resistance of the people for justice.
Ex-Chief Minister of Kerala, V. S. Achuthanandan came out against the attack on the privacy stating that it is a fascist tendency. Obviously fascism could sustain for whatever limited period in history mainly due to the effective art of spying on their citizens. But the role of Muslim league is dubious. The list of 268 people includes Muslim league leaders also. But they still have to take a strong stand to protect the privacy rights of their own community. It is time that the political leaders understand that if the leaders fail to protect their people, people can always search for alternatives in this democratic system.
Nobody in the list of 268 people had any criminal records. It had many important people like teachers, professionals, businessmen, politician and more important: it included Muslim journalists in the mainstream media of Kerala, like Mathrubhumi, Madhyamam, Chandrika, Thejas, etc. The journalist association in Kerala has already taken a strong stand against the invasion of privacy. The state union president of the journalist association, K. C. Rajagopal has already demanded immediate action on the officials involved. But the Chief Minister is only rolling over, without convincing answers to the public.
The Chief Minister can express a sigh of relief due to one fact: That he is not the only spy. Even Manmohan Singh is trying to master this art of spying. The recent debate on Unique Identity (UID) Project is just another example. Here is a situation where the Indian State imposes its citizens to provide the personal details of all Indian citizens for digitalizing, so that effective spying can be executed. Opposing the system of passes for Indians of Natal Province in Apartheid South Africa (1906 -1914), Mahatma Gandhi wrote: `I have never known a legislation of this nature being directed against free men in any part of the world! I know that indentured Indians in Natal are subject to a drastic system of passes, but these poor fellows can be hardly classed as free men….and giving of finger prints, required by the Ordinance…I read a volume on finger impressions from which I gathered that finger prints were required by law only from criminals’. He described the act as a Black Act. If this person called Gandhi were alive, he would have been the first person to react against the Unique Identity Project (UID) today. But Oommen Chandi and Manmohan Singh are far away from Gandhi.
Oommen Chandy has like minded partners in the State of Kerala. The University of Calicut has an interesting Vice Chancellor. He has banned protests in the campus. The students are also not allowed to put up posters. But the next action is even more hilarious. He has put up video cameras in the campus for surveillance on the students! The University of Calicut has a political tradition. Many students of this University expressed their right to dissent even during Emergency, when dissent was not allowed. It was through such dissent of the youth that Smt. Indira Gandhi was forced to be out of power. Both the Congress Party as well as the Communist Party of India (CPI) which supported the Emergency had to pay a huge price for stifling dissent. But today, the act of stifling dissent of the youth is becoming a wider phenomenon. Jamia Millia University is also following the same tradition of banning dissent and video surveillance. What Indian society faced by a `declared’ Emergency during the seventies, is slowly being faced without any `declaration’ by the rulers!
To my mind, there are two main questions on this growing behaviour of the education system. If education means opening of the minds, how can education be provided without critical dissent? Secondly, how can a surveilled student community be ever `educated’? The Vice Chancellor of the Calicut University has gone one more step forward. He even objected to give permission to well known historian Dr. K.N. Panikkar to speak on the subject. However, when the students and staff organized the event without permission, the campus was filled with police force. Can any meaningful education take place in a context where even critical discussions are banned? This development in the Universities of Calicut and Jamia Millia has to be seen from a wider context of the overall tendency of tightening the spaces of dissent in the post-globalised India. It is in this context that the art of spying has to be evaluated. What Indian society faced by a `declared’ Emergency during the seventies, is slowly being faced by the people of this country, even without any `declaration’ by the rulers!
The citizens of this country have placed some faith in a Government by entering into an electoral system out of no choice. Their choice is between the crooks and the millionaires covered under the organized party networks. But the demand that the people of this country should provide their personal details to such a Government, so that such details can be digitalized in order to facilitate the surveillance on each citizen, is asking for too much.
The Governments of the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom have abandoned the national identity cards already. The reasons stated by the Home Secretary of UK was that it would otherwise be `intrusive bullying’ by the State, and that the Government intended to be the `servant’ of the people and not their `master’. Even in the Philippines, where the democratic rights have been seen as less than in India, the Supreme Court struck down the President’s order which instituted a biometric based national ID system, calling it unconstitutional on two grounds: the outreach of the executive system over the legislative and the invasion of privacy of the citizens. But the world’s largest democracy called India under Manmohan Singh is trying to go ahead with UID Project. The repercussions of this blunder would be severe. It would convert the Indian State as a greater spy on its own people than ever before. From the largest democracy in the world, India would convert itself as the largest spy State in the world. The choice of the people whether they wish to be surveilled upon or not, should be heard first. When the rulers become spies of their own people, the civil society has no choice but to express their constitutional freedom which has granted rights to privacy for every citizen.
Why is the Indian State afraid of its own citizens? Is there a possible healthy governance of the Indian people without being spied upon? When will the people’s movements be free from the spies of the State? Why should the Indian people pay for the sustenance of a spy network which spy on them? The logic is not very clear to me. But there is one fact that is obviously clear. It is because of the fact that the State is afraid of its own people that it is trying to keep its people in fear. When the Binayak Sen campaign, we could feel that many people were afraid to touch the subject till the campaign became very large. Similarly, many people are afraid to touch the Maudany issue today out of sheer fear, even if they know that they realize that he is innocent. The State has successfully transferred their own fears on its people!
When the character of Indian State is changing, the political leaders coming out of institutions like the World Bank, without having any experience in political work became common in India after globalization. The next generation of national leaders may be from the spy recruits. Perhaps these spies may decide how the Indian State should transform itself! But one thing is clear from history: A surveilled society can never be free!
What is the ultimate answer to this problem? My activist friends tell me that an immediate legal action on the e-mail issue is needed on this matter. Perhaps it may work. But personally I would vote for a more subversive action. My answer to this problem is that the best choice that is left for the citizens of this country is to spy on the spies. That is exactly what Viju V. Nair did. And I do hope that more spies from the people’s side will emerge in the near future. When the freedom loving people of this country keep an organized watch on those who violate their freedom, they can perform better than any CIA on this planet. If the people of this country are not vigilant on the invasion of their own rights, there is no need to crib when their freedom is drained away. Freedom is never given as a charity. It is constantly negotiated and fought for. Ultimately, we must remember Hegel in this respect: `A slave who resists against slavery, ceases to become a slave!’ It is also the consciousness of the slave which determines the period of slavery. And I am too glad that there is a major emergence of consciousness in this state of Kerala which is shaped by the art of resistance in history. This consciousness will make the existing institutions either redundant or force them to reshape themselves!
(K.P. Sasi is a film maker, cartoonist and a writer. He can be reached at [email protected] )
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