Why ‘sting’ operations, though controversial, are crucial

Rahul Singh

Two recent events have not received the attention they warrant. Both are linked. They concern issues integral to our democracy. One is the need to eradicate corruption, and the other the importance of ‘sting’ operations.

First, corruption. On May 17, four senior leaders of West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress, including two ministers, were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation. They had been caught in a 2014 ‘sting’ operation — which was only publicly revealed in 2016, prior to the Assembly poll — ‘accepting large amounts of cash to facilitate a fictitious project’. Eleven other politicians were also entrapped in the same fashion, including some who belonged to the Bharatiya Janata Party. Prominent among them was Suvendu Adhikari, who switched from the TMC to the BJP in the run-up to the 2021 Assembly polls, and who also defeated Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the just-concluded election.

Why did it take five years for the ‘caged-parrot’ CBI (a description given by the Supreme Court) to move against the politicians, and more importantly, why have only those from the TMC been singled out and none from the BJP? The conduct of the West Bengal Governor, Jagdeep Dhankhar, also needs to be questioned, and if necessary, condemned. His sanction is required before such arrests can be made. The alacrity with which he gave his sanction for the arrest of the TMC members in question, within days of the election results, contrasts tellingly with his inaction against the allegedly culpable BJP members. Governors are meant to be impartial. This one, clearly, is not.

The ‘sting’ operation was conducted by journalist Mathew Samuel. The investigating authorities must have carefully studied the secret filming and taping that Samuel presented to them, and satisfied themselves before taking action. His name should ring a bell. He was one of the two men (the other was Aniruddha Bahal) behind the most famous Indian ‘sting’ operation of all — the Tehelka (meaning ‘commotion’) expose of the Ministry of Defence in 2001. Nicknamed ‘Operation West End’, painstaking research went into it, with the ‘sting’ operators knowing exactly whom to target, and how. One of them was the president of the BJP, the late Bangaru Laxman, who was secretly filmed shovelling wads of cash into his drawer, for his assistance in the purchase of non-existent defence equipment. Others included senior officials and even Generals. The Defence Minister, George Fernandes, had to resign, and the Vajpayee government tethered on the brink of collapse. Another casualty was Jaya Jaitley, a close companion of Fernandes. She tried desperately to erode the credibility of the incriminating evidence, claiming that the tapes were ‘doctored’. But she failed. Last year, she was found guilty and sentenced to jail.

Meanwhile, the hugely embarrassed BJP government went after Tehelka with a vindictive vengeance. Income tax raids were followed by endless harassment. But this was not what eventually brought Tehelka down. That happened when Tarun Tejpal, its founder and editor, was accused of sexual assault by a junior colleague during a literary festival held in Goa, and helmed by Tehelka. By then, from being primarily a digital portal, Tehelka had become a successful news magazine, exposing corruption and malgovernance.

‘Sting’ operations are admittedly controversial. Needless to say, governments hate them. Even the public is divided. In the Tehelka case, some of those who were targeted also asked for women to be provided, which was done. Many thought that this was ethically wrong of the journalists. However, all said and done, ‘stings’ are integral to the exposure of corruption and of malfeasance. They deserve the support of all those who want a cleaner public life. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has asked the public to secretly record demands for bribes, on their cell phones. Many newspapers carry photos of civic inefficiency taken by readers. Remedial measures are usually taken straightaway.

Perhaps the most famous ‘sting’ was on best-selling author Jeffrey Archer. With a senior position in the British Conservative Party, he was a favourite to succeed Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister. One fateful night, a Pakistan-origin doctor, Aziz Kurtha, recognised Archer as he was going to meet a prostitute. Kurtha tipped off a popular tabloid, which used the prostitute to do a ‘sting’ on Archer. When the news of Archer frequenting the prostitute made headlines, he sued the tabloid for libel, realising his political career was on the line. He got a friend to lie that he (Archer) was elsewhere when he was supposed to have met the prostitute. Archer won his case against the tabloid, and was awarded one million pounds in damages. His political career was back on track. Then later, when the same friend who had lied was dying, he had pangs of conscience. He admitted he had lied. The case was reopened and Archer was sentenced to four years in jail for perjury, his political career, though not his success as a novelist, in utter ruins. Further investigations by the British Press revealed that Archer had all along been a consummate liar and was also involved in financial irregularities. And to think, had it not been for the ‘sting’ on him, he could have been British Prime Minister.

— The writer is a veteran journalist

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.