WikiLeaks, seen as “sin” by some today, will become the norm in 21st century as information begins to flow more freely and Governments worldwide shift from command and control mindset towards one of openness, accessibility and connectivity.

Stating this, Mr Sam Pitroda, Advisor to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Infrastructure, Innovation and Information, pointed out that information will demand openness and that he would like to spend the next five years to propagate its democratisation.

“Our job is to democratise information. I want to spend the next five years of my life in that…That will be the key to the direction of democracy in the 21{+s}{+t} century. That is where we will be different from China…that is where we will have the strength to get information from bottom to the top,” he said.

He said that Governments across the world are focussed on “command and control”, which is a mindset of the past.

“The 20{+t}{+h} century…world war, control, dominance, bi-polar world those are all things of the past. The 21{+s}{+t} century will be a multi-polar world. You will not be able to lead with command and control. It will be all about openness, co-ordination, communication, accessibility and connectivity,” he said.

However, information relating to national security will have to be an exception to this philosophy of information free flow.

Mr Pitroda said that the new order would also bring about the need for convergence of public and private positions (of the State) on various issues.

“You will have to understand that the Gandhian way of dealing with things will be required. In other words, the public position and the private position will have to be the same. WikiLeaks talked of two positions -- What you say in public is very different from what you say in private…If you had said that same things in public and private, you would not have problems,” he added.

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