By Patricia Mukhim
‘‘Defamation notices are usually sent by people who have something to hide and therefore want to gag the media and to cancel the democratic ethos of freedom of speech and expression. A person’s reputation is not what he thinks it is. A person’s reputation is built over a period of time and is certified by co-workers, seniors and juniors in the establishment in which that person is working.’’
Many think of the newspaper as just several pages of information on politics, governance, society the economy and some sports and entertainment. In progressive societies people engage actively with day to day issues of governance because that’s what really matters at the end of the day. Meghalaya, however, has a different eco-system. Among the educated class, the large majority don’t want to ruffle feathers just in case they need political or bureaucratic favours. Hence, they create a cosy, comfort zone and operate within that. They only indulge in gossip sessions about who is corrupt and how deep the rot is in the government. After that they forget and live another day to reveal these state secrets at another gossip session.
However, Meghalaya, has been exemplary in many ways. When The Shillong Times exposed the corruption that riddled the State Lottery run by Mani Kumar Subba, the businessman who later turned MP from Assam in connivance with Meghalaya’s politicians, we had some of the best and most honest officers in the Law Department like the Late Mr L Jyrwa who did not hesitate to share the violations committed by Subba’s firm. MK Subba, filed defamation cases against The Shillong Times at several courts in Assam to harass and silence the paper but the newspaper managed to gather so much information on the criminal antecedents of the man that he could not pursue those defamation cases.
Similarly in the year 2000, the Government led by Late EK Mawlong had signed a deal with Asian Housing Construction Limited (AHCL) which would have given the Company complete ownership of the Meghalaya House at Russell Street, a premier location and allowed it to capitalise the space by turning it into a commercial complex with Meghalaya retaining only a small portion at the back. There were a few ministers then who were honest to the core. They called a few of us to discuss the matter and to tell us that we needed to blow the whistle on this. Some of us activists then joined hands with other pressure groups like the KSU, FKJGP, SSSS to form the group – Peoples’ Rally Against Corruption (PRAC) which was chaired by Mr HP Oflyn Dohling. We had several public meetings in different villages to draw attention to this “would be scam.” Some of us approached the High Court of Gauhati with a PIL. When we returned from Gauhati after filing the PIL we learnt that the deal was rescinded. But things had become so murky and there was internal dissension in the Government. Several ministers felt that the then CM had failed to prevent what was to have been a ‘sell-out’ of Meghalaya’s prime property. The Government of EK Mawlong collapsed and FA Khonglam became the Chief Minister. The architect of this entire drama was the Late PA Sangma.
This Kolkata Meghalaya House episode was enacted by a certain bureaucrat in connivance with AHCL. Obviously, there was much to gain for him through this deal. Thankfully, the then politicians (at least a couple of them had strong scruples and leaked the MoA between AHCL and Meghalaya Government – an agreement that gave the Company undue benefits.
Today we no longer have such ministers. Not a single one of them is ready to blow the whistle on the Government. They don’t have the spine for that because they are themselves hugely compromised. Hence the investigation by no less than some senior and responsible police officials into the gross misuse of ‘public money’ by the AIG (Administration) since 2019 in purchasing 29 vehicles of different makes without proper documents and keeping them in his personal custody, is not even worth considering a ‘scam’ by this present government. That’s how low Meghalaya has sunk in the past four years. The Enquiry Committee looking into the cases of abuse of power by the AIG (A) used the word ‘flabbergasted’ to define the shock at seeing not one or two but a host of irregularities that have gone unchecked for over three years. How could an AIG (A) working under the direct control of the DGP in the PHQ have done this without being detected. In that case how can Police detect crime outside their department? Isn’t this demoralising for those in the police that joined with a sense of commitment and did not pay their way into the service?
Recently this newspaper was served with a defamation notice by the former DGP under whose tenure the above malfeasance was committed by the AIG(A), for exposing the rot in the Police Department which had clearly come out in the Enquiry Report. The Report had actually recommended, “a high-level Fact-finding enquiry should be formed to go into the details of the entire scam, since this enquiry report may not reflect the entire magnitude of the scam.”
Defamation notices are usually sent by people who have something to hide and therefore want to gag the media and to cancel the democratic ethos of freedom of speech and expression. A person’s reputation is not what he thinks it is. A person’s reputation is built over a period of time and is certified by co-workers, seniors and juniors in the establishment in which that person is working. The question then is whether the enquiry into the wrongdoings in the Police Headquarters were done with the intention to rupture the reputation of the person heading the police establishment or to unearth the numerous criminal acts of a person working directly under the DGP, who claims that his reputation has been sullied. Even if one single fact out of the many detected by the Enquiry Committee is found to be true the liability falls on the head of the Police Department.
Talking about leaked documents, this is as old as Watergate where US President Richard Nixon had to resign from office when documents that compromised his position as the President of the USA were leaked to the media. In April 2019, the Supreme Court decided that leaked confidential documents which suggested the interference of the Modi Government in negotiations over the Rafale jet deals can be relied upon while adjudicating on petitions that have sought a review of the court’s verdict of December 2018 which had rejected prayers for investigation into the fighter jet deal. The apex court bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and comprising Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph, was unanimous in its verdict that purportedly leaked confidential documents can be relied upon while adjudicating on the Rafale review petitions.
Earlier I had stated that the newspaper is the Public Square in a democracy where all wrongdoings by the custodians of public money have to be exposed. It’s a different matter that very few if any pick up their pens to write their views and send those to the newspaper as letters. The ‘letters to the editor’ column is a Public Square where people speak up on the state of governance, the corruption and mis-governance that is being witnessed day in and day out. The MDA Government has become a government of ‘a scheme a day’ even while officials are tasked with distributing money right, left and centre based on those schemes which, by the way, do not measure outcomes. There are so many areas that Government has failed to address and newspaper offices should actually have hundreds of letters every day which express the grievances of citizens. But that hardly happens. I met a retired lady government employee. She says, “I agree there is so much wrongdoing by this government but as pensioners we still depend on the ‘salt’ of the government so we cannot speak. Did democracy foresee such a situation where those who work for the government would have to compromise on their voices and be forever muted, even after they are retired?
It was Plato who said, “The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” Plato was a far-sighted philosopher and centuries after he made the above statement we are seeing it play before our eyes. Not many will disagree with Plato’s (Republic, Book VI) which argues that democracy is inferior to various forms of monarchy, aristocracy and even oligarchy on the grounds that democracy tends to undermine the expertise necessary to properly govern societies.
At this juncture when this newspaper has been served with the defamation notice there are many who say, “We stand with The Shillong Times.” But the media needs more than that passive support to be able to expose corruption and abuse of public office.
In any case, Truth is an absolute defence to defamation. If a statement is true, it can’t be defamatory. For example, if someone accuses a public official of corruption and an enquiry committee finds that to be true, that itself is proof and cannot be defamatory. In the end Truth has to prevail!