[Reader-list] Are MNIC and General Elections new business opportunities for the suspicion industry?

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear All,

With the ongoing discourse around MNIC we are witnessing a slow but
steady cementing of the process of a confusing and an incongruous idea
of individual identity. One of the offshoots of the identity process
is -suspicion-. Possibly in the near future the Indian Government
would like us to believe that all those who posses the Identity token
(MNIC) are Indian citizens. But like, as had happened earlier, this
discourse may have twin characteristics- fake and original. Therefore
not only the people in power, functionaries of various state
institutions who are supposed to validate our citizenship token will
have work on their hands, i.e. to see to it that a token is in fact,
genuine, but also those who are in the business of making copies may
attempt to produce genuine lookalikes. In such a situation any verbal
claim, such as,  I -am -who -I -say- I- am will be first viewed with
an internalized form of suspicion, only to be okayed if substituted
and abstracted to this token.

Suspicion plays an important role in this form identity game. In this
regard, I want to cite some similarities between the process of
selling the idea of MNIC and the ongoing election process. Perhaps
with the ongoing election process we are witnessing a very slow but a
dangerous trend- institutionalized erosion of trust leading to an
institutionalized sedimentation of suspicion.

While the mass media is busy portraying the ongoing election process
in a celebratory manner, as 'Indian Political League' or 'Dance of
Democracy' or 'a Billion votes' and so on, at the core of this
process, at the level of political parties or more narrower still, at
the level of party head quarters, we are witnessing signs of
institutional change. Unfortunately, it seems, this is a change for
the worse.

People who are running these political parties are becoming
mistrustful of their colleagues. This is bound to happen in the
absence of an ideology driving these organizations. We have former
Sanghis fighting on Congress ticket, from Congressmen fighting on BJP
ticket and so on. This mistrust, it seems, has opened a new market.
Almost 18000 registered private detectives of India are hoping get
employment this election season. Many of these so called expert
intelligence gatherers are employed by political organizations of all
hues to snoop, on not only the opponents but also members of the same
organization. The price per operation, according to the story below,
is 4,00,000 Rupees.

On the face of it, even these two strands, MINC and current election
process, which I have tried to mix, seem distant and un-connected but
I think, if we allow ourselves to observe these phenomena through a
conceptual of framework of -trust and suspicion- we may see some
similarity.

With warm regards

Taha



http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20090427&fname=Private+Detectives+(F)&sid=1&pn=1

ELECTIONS: PRIVATE DETECTIVES
The Moles Behind The Dais
Political parties have hired sleuths to watch rivals and check
dissidence. An investigators' association has even offered help to the
EC. ......
Anuradha Raman

Cloak & Ballot

    * Elections 2009 will see a record number of private detectives
keeping tabs on politicians. They say almost all national parties have
hired sleuths.
    * Close to 400 of them are former police, intelligence or army personnel
    * Hired by political parties, they will be keeping a watch on both
rival parties and dissidence within
    * The Private Detectives Association has written to the EC
offering their expertise to monitor political activity
    * The detectives claim a 98 per cent success rate in the course of
their investigation

***
This election, the air has been thick with CDs and tapes containing
hate speeches and remarks that could be called salacious.
		
	"We have the expertise and the equipment and can help the EC ensure
free and fair elections." —Kunwar Vikram Singh
		
	
	Remember the Varun Gandhi CDs, or the Mulayam tapes, or Rabri Devi's
innuendo-laden outburst? The Election Commission, according to
sources, has in its possession, not one but a couple of CDs sent to it
by "credible" but "unnamed sources."

Well, who are these unnamed sources? They are 18,000 private
detectives (they prefer the term intelligence gatherers) across the
country,
who are monitoring netas and sending feedback to the Election
Commission whenever someone crosses the line. And who has hired them?
Political parties—in order to catch rivals and also snoop for any
dissidence within their own ranks.

Now these unnamed men are seeking some legitimacy. So the Association
of Private Detectives of India, to which they belong, has dashed off a
letter to the Election Commission offering its services to keep a
watch on potential violators of the model code of conduct. In the
letter, association head Kunwar Vikram Singh, a former
army/intelligence official, says, "We have the expertise and the
equipment to track down the movements of candidates, which can help
the commission ensure a fair election." The commission has not
replied, but the association members live in hope.
The association, which is recognised by the Union home ministry, has
several top retired officers from the intelligence and the
investigation communities, including a former CBI director.

Meanwhile, political parties have enlisted the help of the detectives
to keep watch on the opposition and malcontents or mischief-makers
within their own ranks. According to Singh, the presence
	
		
	"It is good if sleuths work for political parties. I think this will
help clean up public life." —Joginder Singh
		
of detectives quietly gathering political intelligence is likely to
have a sobering effect on partymen. "Our services have been sought by
all major political parties to keep a watch on their own men and track
their movements," he says. This is chiefly because political parties
now have election managers, who like to assess workers' morale. The
rationale? Given the deeply suspicious nature of politicians, nothing
can be left to chance till the last day.

In fact, some of the detectives were of the view that as the number of
dissidents and their activities increase, the leadership becomes
concerned about their ability to wreak havoc within the party and
likes to keep a tab on them. "It is generally the very senior
politician who has been denied a ticket, or whose son or daughter
hasn't been given ticket who is seen as a spoilsport," says Singh.
Senior politicians usually have a committed constituency that votes
under their direction. "Very often it has been found that the
percentage of voting goes down when dissidence is on the rise," says
another investigator.

In fact, private investigators say, it is their monitoring which kept
dissident activity in the Congress in Delhi firmly in check during the
assembly elections last year. The BJP did little to check its
dissidents. Needless to say, no political party likes to admit openly
about hiring detectives to keep tabs on their flock.

An investigator is usually hired after his meeting with senior
politicians while the names of candidates are being finalised. The
request is almost invariably the same. A dossier on renegades and
ticket hopefuls.

Says former CBI official V.M. Pandit, who has been tracking candidates
of national parties on the campaign trail and who recently made a
presentation to one of the leading parties, "Senior partymen are
usually interested in getting a complete profile of candidates who are
likely to get the ticket to contest or who have been denied a ticket."
The profile goes into great detail: the likes/loves of candidates, and
includes information on suspected association with Bollywood starlets.
There is a section on 'twists and turns', specially for those who have
switched parties. There is also a compilation of political comments
made by a candidate. A complete fact-file on offences committed by the
politician is also included. "We plant our moles in their homes and
they become insiders within days of gaining entry," says an
investigator. The entire screening exercise costs Rs 4 lakh.

Once a dossier is prepared, it is presented to the party high command.
The association, which boasts of former CBI director Joginder Singh
and former inspector-general (operations) from Punjab, C. Pal Singh,
as honorary members claims a success rate of 98 per cent.

Experienced detectives say they do not enter serious cases without the
approval of the state government, but they are often pressed into
service for peripheral intelligence-gathering by politicians. This is
defined as gauging the mood of the party functionaries. There are
close to 400 members of the association who are former policemen,
intelligence and army officials.

It is their ability to merge and go unnoticed that pays off. They say
keeping tabs on politicians is easy. Despite all those closed-door
meetings, much of the carping and backbiting is done quite openly—one
only has to be there at the right time. "Usually they (party workers)
get drunk and start abusing each other," says a detective. "Earlier
such sleuthing was carried out by government agencies for the party in
power."

According to CBI director Joginder Singh, it's quite natural for
political parties to seek out information on their opposition as well
as known dissidents in their party. "For private detectives to be on
the rolls of political parties is a welcome move as this will clean up
public life," he says, and adds that most of the tapes doing the
rounds are the work of detectives.

Of course, no political party is likely to admit that they have
employed detectives to spy on rivals or to keep their own house in
order. But many politicians in power believe that it is more
convenient to have their own sleuths than depend on state-run
agencies, from which there is always the risk of an embarrassing media
leak.