On June 16, 2023, a few odd weeks ago Daniel Ellsberg, an American military analyst, who had caused a public uproar in 1971, by releasing what is known as the Pentagon Papers, breathed his last in his home, at the ripe old age of 92. He had succumbed to pancreatic cancer. Not the worst ending for a man once called a traitor and sentenced to 115 years of life imprisonment. He wouldn’t have been overjoyed at the chain of events that took place on a quiet Thursday afternoon in a sleepy town in Massachusetts, in April this year when a group of heavily armed FBI officers arrested 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, member of the intelligence wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, for leaking classified documents containing data on the military status of the Ukrainian Government. These incidents have put global focus back on that unique element of our complicated socio-political fabric that is the whistleblower.
The term ‘whistleblower’ first associated itself with law enforcement in the 19th century, because people used to blow a whistle to officials or the public, and sports referees who blew the whistle to indicate irregular or foul play. Soon the ‘whistle’ began to be used in the metaphorical sense, as when someone ‘blows the whistle’ to call attention to some wrong doing that has been kept a secret.
“I am loath to believe that Mr Johnston ever blew the whistle on a trusting friend, but Tex believed it, and carried Johnston on the book for years.”- reported the San Francisco Chronicle on February 10, 1929 -- a common example of how the catchphrase had begun to worm itself into mainstream news reporting. After this, it was a natural jump and a criminal indictment before we got to the modern day interpretation of the whistleblower.
However, in this case practice precedes phrasing. Benjamin Franklin in 1773 became one of the first whistleblowers when he exposed confidential letters that revealed that the royally appointed governor of Massachusetts had intentionally misled Parliament to promote a military buildup in the Colonies.
In administration of state, and now in many big corporations, misdeeds of those in power, are often sought to be suppressed in the name of state secrets. For corporations, the nature of such public exposure is prevented through a maze of statutory provisions and contractual instruments such as trade secrets, copyright laws and employment contracts.
Many kinds of whistleblowers
Whistleblowers in the modern world can be classified in three categories. There are the information anarchist-such as Julian Assange or Aaron Swartz, who are against the idea of insulation of information in any form. In the second category are public interest defenders such as Daniel Ellisberg, who after a moral epiphany in 1971, leaked the Pentagon Papers, which were classified state papers to newspapers in the US to demonstrate that the government had the knowledge that the Vietnam War was not likely to be won by the US. Satyendra Dubey, an engineer with the highway authorities of India was murdered in the year 2002 for exposing the powerful nexus of contractors and corrupt politicians.
Then there are information warriors in the private sector as well and their roles are becoming increasingly important with corporate behemoths starting to dominate large parts of national life. Stanley Adam had passed information on price fixing by his employer Swiss Pharma giant Hoffman La Roche to the European competition committee in 1972. He was imprisoned for this, later detailing his struggles in Roch vs Adams, authorised by him.
Karen Silkwood, a 28-year-old lab technician with nuclear energy company Kerr-McGee was killed in a road accident on her way to meet with a New York Times Reporter in 1974. She was in touch with reporters and wanted to shed light on the laxity in safety measures in the plutonium plant of her employer in Crescent Oklahoma. Plutonium contamination was found in her lungs, her apartment, and even in a cheese bologna sandwich lying in her fridge. A film was made later inspired by her.
Fang Bin, a reporter based in Wuhan, China, filmed and broadcasted images on social media, showing the first stages of the Covid-19 virus and how quickly it was spreading and the unprecedented number of deaths. His videos also exposed the Chinese Government’s lack of transparency. He went missing in early 2020, and was reported to be imprisoned by the Chinese Government. He has been allegedly released in early May, 2023 in Wuhan.
Serena Shim was a Lebanese American journalist reporting at the Turkey-Syria border. She reported that ISIS agents were being taken across the border into Syria, which had huge political implications for Turkey as it made them look like they were harbouring terrorists and supporting ISIS. Turkey branded her a ‘spy’ and she died in a mysterious car crash two days after publicly making a statement fearing for her life and freedom.
The Vyapam Scam was one of the most notorious episodes in India’s educational and recruitment narrative. It involved 13 different examinations conducted by the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board which involved recruitment to coveted government jobs and admission to select institutions. The corrupt nexus between government employees and middle men and their manipulations first came to light in 2013, and the CBI in its charge sheet had named over 1,200 individuals in different categories including forgery, bribery, etc. However, more than the actual scam itself it was the mysterious deaths of over 40 people involved in this case, especially those that “blew the whistle”, that shook the social consciousness of the nation.
Anand Rai who was a whistleblower associated with this, was arrested in Madhya Pradesh while serving as a doctor at a State government-run hospital. He was recently granted bail in January by the Supreme Court, again bringing back the public’s focus on this tragic saga.
The information technology revolution has given a massive boost to information warriors such as Julian Assange (of Wikileaks fame), Chelsea (previously Bradley) Manning, who revealed various confidential data of US army in Afghanistan, Aaron Swartz, who made public a large number of academic articles available on online paid service, their legacy taken forward by the likes of Edward Snowden. These individuals have etched themselves into the public conscience, globally, as they are celebrated across the world as crusaders of justice and every event and update in their lives is closely followed, resulting in strong public opinion. However, even with people taking to the streets all over the world in support, Hollywood celebrity fans and a permanent honorary position in the mainstream culture, the path that a whistleblower chooses is not for the faint hearted. “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself becoming a villain.” Whistleblowers are people who have seen real meaning in this old chestnut.
Whistleblowers in the history
The first official legally recorded case of whistleblowing took place in 1777-8, in the U.S. Two seamen, Samuel Shaw and Richard Marven, accused the Commander in Chief of their vessel, Esek Hoppins of torture and abuse of power, against British captives. This led to huge uproar and after several arrests and much drama, the Continental Congress passed what came to be known as the world’s first whistleblower protection law, just seven months after the U.S.’ declaration of Independence.
In ancient civilisations such as Greek and India, we find blueprints of whistleblowing already in existence. In the 4th century BC, Kautliya proposed that any ‘suchaka’ who provides information on fraudulent activities in perpetration will receive one-sixth of the amount in question as a reward, if he is successful in proving it. If he was a ‘bhritaka’ or a government servant he would receive 1/12th the amount.
Apart from the spotlight world of international politics and espionage, whistleblowing is still most common in the world of finance and companies, where it has the potential to be the savior of the economy when billions of dollars are lost every year due to fraudulent practices. It’s obvious then that, a whistleblower is often seen by society as a vigiliante of sorts, a custodian of the peoples’ rights against the injustice and artifice that misuse of authority may often wield. It is a matter of the philosophical question that plagues us since the dawn of civilization: What is right vs. what is ethical? Whistleblowing satisfies both criteria suitably. It enables justice and transparency, forcing an environment of safety and protection from the inevitability of abuse of power. Law courts have, by and large been sympathetic to the cause of whistleblowers. In a 2019 case (Birla Corporation Ltd. vs. Adventz Investments and Holdings Ltd.), our Supreme Court rejected the charge of theft against certain individuals who had obtained several documents without the consent of their lawful owners to vindicate their stand in a legal proceeding.
The US Supreme Court permitted publication of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 (New York Times vs. United States). Courts across the common law jurisdiction rejected the British Government’s plea to prevent Peter Wright, an intelligence man from publishing details of the secret service operations in his book, the Spycatcher, in the late eighties. While everything concerning operations of a State or a Corporation cannot be brought in public domain in the name of transparency, all of any of the misdeeds of these entities also cannot be insulated under the same set of laws that protects this privileged information.
In India, the Whistleblowers Act was passed in 2014 that provides for the protection of the identity and strict norms to prevent their victimization. For example, an organization cannot initiate proceedings against a whistleblower pending a probe into the allegations. However, this law was not operational, instead an Amendment Bill was introduced in Parliament in 2015 that dilutes the Act considerably, which just goes to show how much moral muscle and raw power the whistleblower holds and how much fear they instill in the powers that be.
There are countless unsung heroes throughout the ages who have rebelled against corrupt authorities, usually to end up in prison or dead. So what drives ordinary men to value the greater good of people against personal benefit and sometimes even at the cost of their own life? Especially in today’s world where morality is becoming an increasingly grey concept, a world where greed and an almost hedonistic way of life is normalized and technological advancements is beginning to challenge the nature of human existence. It is heartening to know that cynicism isn’t the default setting in our attitudes, and that there are still those superheroes among us who believe in honesty, virtue and the greater good of the people.
Wise words by Mickey Spillaine: “See, heroes never die. John Wayne isn’t dead, Elvis isn’t dead. You can’t kill a hero.”
