Indian government has a strange method to deal with
corruption. Instead of elimination of corruption, the Indian
government tries to eliminate corruption exposing news. This is not
new for us as we have been facing censorship at the hands of Google
and Indian government for long.
Google has censored the news item titled “
Radia
Tapes, Ratan Tata’s Privacy, Fundamental Rights and Public
Interest” on 05-09-2012. It seems the Indian government
has become too fussy about disclosing the source of leaks of Radia
tapes. The Supreme Court of India has been asking for long about the
source of leak, but Indian government does not care. In the end we
would never know who leaked the tapes.
This censorship act has another important aspect
attached to it. By censoring the news regarding demands for
strengthening and preserving public interest, Indian government is
also indirectly trying to manipulate proceeding at the Supreme Court.
This is clearly against the rights provided by Indian constitution.
According to Praveen Dalal, leading techno legal
expert of Asia and managing partner of ICT law firm
Perry4Law,
“The Indian Constitutional Scheme is based upon “Balance of
Rights” and no right is absolute in nature. In case of conflict
between two Fundamental Rights, the Fundamental Right that
strengthens and substantiate the Public Interest should prevail”.
Hence if there is a conflict between Right to Privacy and Right to
Information/know, information can be disclosed in certain
circumstances to substantiate and strengthen Public Interest, opines
Dalal.
Thus, the present censorship act is not only
violative of our freedom of speech and expression but also our right
to information. Similarly, it is also a direct attempt to curb public
interest so that corruption related activities remain under cover. We
will update all on this issue very soon. We also expect that Supreme
Court of India would take note of these negative tactics of Google
and Indian government.
