A smart government, not to say a sensitive one, would have taken senior BJP figure Arun Jaitley, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, into confidence once it became known that a Delhi Police constable had made an unauthorised attempt to get hold of Mr Jaitley’s cellphone call records. The constable in question has been arrested. We not only hope the law will take its course but also that the BJP leader is kept posted with the progress made in the case, which we may hope is prompt. This is more than a matter of courtesy. It signifies that the democratic system is working adequately. One of the basic tenets of the democratic framework is due regard for
dissent and opposition so long as it does not seek to challenge state power through violent means.
At the highest level it has not been this country’s political tradition to snoop on rivals in an effort to surreptitiously dig out information to be used for political ends. But it will be recalled that the Congress under Rajiv Gandhi withdrew support from the Chandra Shekhar government on the ground that it had got Haryana policemen to spy on the former Prime Minister’s movements. At a much lower level, and in a somewhat different kind of case, a prominent Uttar Pradesh politician reputed to be a wheeler-dealer was involved not so long ago in a convoluted case of allegation and counter-allegation of keeping tabs through cellphone taps with the help of phone companies. But on the whole, troubling political rivals through electronically gained intelligence has been off the menu in India, and is deeply frowned upon.
So far nothing is known of why the Delhi constable was trying to get hold of Mr Jaitley’s mobile records. May be he is still being interrogated and his statements are being corroborated in the normal course. It is hard to believe at this stage that it was the UPA-2 government that mounted this operation, but conceptually nothing can be ruled out for now. Mr Jaitley is a prominent lawyer. All angles, including the hand of business interests, or professional or political rivals within his own party, will also need to be examined. But it will be in the interest of the investigation as well as parliamentary propriety if the senior BJP leader is kept in the loop by the government.
It will be rash to say we have an incipient Watergate on our hands. Sensationalising the issue is irresponsible, but the temptation to do so particularly on the eve of the Budget Session of Parliament may be hard to resist for some. The government’s best bet is to be open about the inquiry.