The Hindu Business Line : Cleansing by stings

When, some years ago, TV channels were all ablaze with the visuals of a sting operation mounted by Tehelka exposing the large-scale pay-offs in defence deals indulged in by some high officers of the Armed Forces and political big shots, it created a big sensation. This was because it was perhaps the first such occasion when the technology of hidden camera came in handy to peep into the goings-on in the dovecotes of the Government.

Since then, the advances in technology have placed in the hands of investigative media near-invisible devices, making it easy to capture conversations and transactions between officials and the public with the same sharp focus and clear audibility as in the case of a video/movie camera.

The fierce competition for top ratings and ad revenue, combined with their understandable and legitimate professional desire to be one up on each other, has made the growing number of TV news channels keen to go in for `stings' in diverse settings.

Beginning with a Delhi police officer who brazenly laid down, without knowing he was on camera, his mamool for different grades of services, viewers have been treated to scenes on the screen of MPs taking money for asking questions, "butcher doctors" surgically maiming beggars at the behest of mafias to increase their "earning capacity" and principals of renowned schools and colleges prepared to bend the rules for hefty bribes.

Thus, stings are laying bare what years of homilies on transparency and accountability have been unable to do. Why not take the idea farther? If audio-visual devices are installed in all workplaces and activated from time to time to monitor the employees' dealings with the public, the shame (if any) and fear of being caught will reduce corruption to a great extent. This is not Big Brother watching, but stern father enforcing rectitude and service-mindedness.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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