In India’s
capital territory of New Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party (common man’s party) made a
spectacular debut onto India’s political landscape with the promise to remove deeply
rooted petty corruption, within the administration.
Within days
of taking office, the new government installed an anti-corruption helpline to
give advice to citizens on how to conduct sting operations on corrupt
officials, by recording evidence - either audio or video against the bribe
taker. Using the evidence generated from such stings as prima facie proof, the
government’s anticorruption bureau would later lay traps to catch these officials
red-handed and then arrest them. The prime objective behind this crusade is to
strike fear into corrupt officials and minimize corruption.
Within three
days, the 23,000 calls received by the helpline amply indicated the extent of
the common man’s frustration; and the resultant motivation to turn into
anti-graft crusaders. Delhi witnessed a surge in the sales of spy catching
devices, for audio and video recording - innocuously disguised into caps,
glasses, bags and even water bottles.
While, there
may be positive fallouts from reducing corruption, there could be social
consequences, if their use impinges onto the privacy of individuals. Spy gadgets,
can be used for nefarious purposes such a blackmail, defamation, abuse, and so
on. In some cases, the compliant may be malicious motivated and even fudge recordings
to defame or entrap honest officials.
