05 May 2014, 06:18 PM IST
Much is being made of the dissonance within the United Progressive Alliance over the propriety of setting up a commission of inquiry into the so-called Snoopgate centred on Narendra Modi. This misses the point altogether. There is complete agreement within the alliance that Snoopgate did happen and the debate only serves to keep the issue alive in the public discourse before the elections. And that is the primary purpose of appointing a commission as well. In other words, the political purpose of appointing a judicial commission is achieved by a furious debate on whether to appoint a commission as well, even if a commission is not appointed.
This is not the only thing on which Snoopgate tends to be a little confusing. Many people tend to see Snoopgate through a lascivious lens: what was Narendra Modi, the ascetic, celibate pracharak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh for whom even his wife is a remote, barely recognised factoid from the past, doing, obsessing over a young woman? This line of thought is completely misplaced. The malaise, it should not be missed, is not confined to Modi's critics. It afflicts his advocates as well. This is why Sangh Parivar outlets were so happy to hear of Digvijay Singh's relationship with a TV anchor. Before you start pointing fingers at our hero, set your own house in order, some Modi supporters said, with glee.
But this again misses the crux of Modi's Snoopgate. The issue is unlawful use of state machinery to carry out surveillance of an individual, violation of a citizen's privacy for no public purpose and the seemingly authoritarian disregard on the part of the Gujarat chief minister for the niceties of law. State resources that should have been used to track dangerous criminals and potential terrorists were being misused to satisfy the personal agenda of the chief minister. This is the problem.
The funny thing about Snoopgate is that such invasive surveillance of a young woman by the Gujarat government without legal authorisation is not being denied by anyone. The strange defence that has been put forward is that this was done to ensure her safety, at the request of the young woman's father. The father has corroborated this, publicly.
Some parents carry out human sacrifice, using their offspring as the offering. In this case, few people would dispute that parental consent does not mitigate the crime. Is there any call for that clarity to blur when the crime committed against the offspring is not murder but snooping for no valid reason and without following the due process of the law?
The Supreme Court is hearing a case on the same subject as well. The Court could ask for an investigation as well. The Gujarat government has already set up an inquiry. So an inquiry into snoopgate is inevitable. But by hotly debating when to set up a committee of inquiry, the issue remains in the public eye, happily for the BJP's political rivals.
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