Call to Register for Jan LokPal Bill: Hoax

Ever saw this text?

"The Government has put condition to get 25 crore people to support Jan LokPal. To give your support call 02261550789 (as given by Kiran Bedi) from your mobile no. Your call will disconnect after 1 ring and your no registered automatically. You will get an SMS confirming this. I did this. Do it and pass to all your friends to make India corruption free. It is now or never...!!!.. (IT WORKS).."

Sometimes the number of people to support is different, and sometimes Dr. Kiran Bedi's name is not mentioned, but that's the content.

The phone number belongs to IndianAgainstCorruption.Org, which is also behind the campaign. The mention of Dr. Kiran Bedi and "IT WORKS" is highly misleading, to say the least. While I appreciate IAC for doing what they are doing for the campaign, I really wonder if misleading is the only modus operandi that works for them! And, I am very disappointed to see so-called educated people to fall for it just like that.

25 crores is less than 20% of the country's population. It can NOT be a plebiscite even if 25 crores support a cause. And, IF the Government of India did really put forth any such condition (with whatever amount of people), as a RULE, the notice should be published more than once in all leading newspapers of the country.

...Today, IndiaAgainstCorruption (IAC) is doing it for a good cause, and people may ask me why I have a problem. What if it's a terrorist outfit tomorrow that wants to get hold of several valid mobile numbers for their activities? Should we give a missed call mindlessly, just like that? (N.B.: Let me clarify that I am a supporter of IndiaAgainstCorruption myself, and I believe they intend only good and nothing bad. I signed their online petition, filled the online referendum, and fasted with Anna Hazare much before the "missed call campaign" started.)

We are all frustrated about the corruption, yes, and let's all do something against it too! But, let's also use our brains - and even conscience - in the process. Let's stop piracy, jumping traffic lights, trying to sneak in extra dutiable goods in your bags when returning to India from a foreign country, and **let's stop being ignorant**!! Educated people in any country do NOT have a right to be ignorant, IMHO!

...Sorry to sound harsh, but India is corrupt ONLY because of fools like us who are literates but are not educated.

So, should you register or not? I'd suggest signing up in the online referendum posted at http://www.indiaagainstcorruption.org/ instead. The ultimate choice is yours, of course!

Addendum: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/169154/missed-call-campaign-lokpal-bill.html says that the IAC campaign ended on June 28. Thanks to a brother of mine for this link. (The link says that the campaign was initiated by a sympathizer of IAC, but then the (a?) leader of IAC speaks about it and thus IAC does know of the campaign though it may not have initiated the campaign. The phone number still, however, appears on the top of the IAC homepage and "About Us" page.)

Wikileaks: The other side of the story

No, this is not Wikileaks about Wikileaks. I don’t know anything about Julian Assange or Wikileaks, not even a fraction of what has been written in news all over the world.

First things first, I am not greatly awed by Wikileaks! There, I said it!! Why? The faith on the factuality of the content of the Leaks originates from the fact that we all hate our governments, we hate all achievers, we wait for someone to find faults with anything that seems perfect.

(Disclaimer: “We” is probably a majority of us and is still a gross generalization, I admit. This generalization continues through the rest of the article.)

Consider this: Wikileaks has released 50,000 documents against a country X. If anyone from the government in X notices that 49,000 of them are wrong, can they go public and say that out? The immediate question then is not “Why did Wikileaks cheat us with 49,000 fake documents?” The question from the citizens of X is still is “What about the other 1,000? So, you are agreeing that they are true, aren’t you?” Naturally, that’s what the question is when we are all like the citizens of X – we just hate our government so much! No one then cares about the 49,000 fake documents and the opposition parties too grill the government about the remaining 1,000!

Consider this now: A few documents reveal some shady situations with the UPA government in the Republic of India. The major opposition party, BJP, makes a hue and cry about it. The next day, a document against BJP is revealed. Why was it not revealed along with the other documents?! Is it not possible that Wikileaks is playing a political game? Worse, the game is probably being played by them not just in one country (like politicians) but in all major countries! And, while not realizing that we are dancing to their tunes, we want them to play more music!! Wikileaks is not just playing the music but is even choreographing the dance, in all the world!

Do I hate Wikileaks so much? Actually, no!! I liked it as a concept, that information pertaining to public should be revealed to public. In spirit, it’s very much like the “Right To Information” (RTI) that’s prevalent in India, for instance. While I do revere RTI as an important tool for democracy, I cannot say the same about Wikileaks. Reason? It’s, after all, a leak.

Picture this: You go to a movie theater. The ticket price is Rs. 50. There are no tickets left at the counter. You do find a black ticketeer selling you the ticket at Rs. 60 and you wouldn’t buy it for ethical reasons. The next week, there’s some government order that raises the ticket prices to Rs. 60. You still go buy it in the ticket counter and watch a film. The price is the same, monetarily speaking, but the ethical prices were different. Likewise, when you file an application under RTI, the information comes right from the government and it’s official. (For people who think the government need not reveal any shady deals under RTI, all I can say is to look up the success of RTI in various states. I’d write more on RTI later.)

Now, picture this: You go to a movie theater. The ticket price is Rs. 50. There are no tickets left at the counter. You do find a black ticketeer selling you the ticket at Rs. 60. So far, it’s all the same as earlier. Say, you do buy a black ticket at Rs. 60 (assuming you are not as ethical really, of course!) What if the ticket was fake? If the theater management doesn’t allow you to go in with a fake ticket, who do you point your finger at? Anyone? Even if you spot the black ticketeer, all (s)he’d say is that many others bought tickets from him/her and watched the movie. Do you have an argument against it? You just curse that fellow, curse the management and leave… and you do not curse yourself for getting the ticket illegally and unethically and even believing that you can sneak in that way.

So, I do think Wikileaks is a good idea but the implementation is what I am skeptical about. Let’s see how things turn.