{"id":121279,"date":"2021-07-26T18:05:48","date_gmt":"2021-07-26T12:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=121279"},"modified":"2021-07-26T18:06:22","modified_gmt":"2021-07-26T12:36:22","slug":"spooky-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/spooky-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Spooky change"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/blogs\/toi-editorials\/spooky-change-intelligence-agencies-need-parliamentary-oversight-let-that-be-the-post-pegasus-consensus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Times of India<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Synopsis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The alleged spying attack (Pegasus) on opposition leaders, journalists and protestors has raised questions over the accountability and independent functioning of intelligence agencies. In this context, a private member bill is introduced for allowing parliamentary oversight over them.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Background<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Congress MP Manish Tewari has revived his private members\u2019 bill to give legal backing and parliamentary oversight to intelligence and security agencies.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It includes the Research and Analysis Wing (R&amp;AW), Intelligence Bureau (IB) and National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO).\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The idea, first mooted by Tewari in 2011, is excellent and<\/span><b> merits cross-party support<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Rationale behind its introduction<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Augment Accountability<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: There is no constitutional or statutory backing of IB, or even a formal charter, apart from a law of 1985, restricting some of its rights. There\u2019s no independent oversight or external scrutiny.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is essential to lay out an intelligence agency\u2019s remit, the range of actions permitted to the minister it reports to, and protections for the agency\u2019s director.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Such safeguards will help in preventing Pegasus-like attacks in the future.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Upholding Democracy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: It is essential for intelligence agencies to be accountable to the public through the legislature, instead of a report to the executive alone.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Secrecy is needed for security and intelligence work but in democracies, safeguards to prevent illegal or dubious practices are as important.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, there has to be <\/span><b>clear demarcation between public duties and information-gathering of political nature <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that seems ultra vires of constitutional liberties.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Preserving Independence<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: There must be institutional safeguards to allow officials to<\/span><b> refuse unreasonable instructions from the political executive.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Regaining Trust: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Given intelligence agencies\u2019 enormous new powers of surveillance and enhanced instances of spying, the bill is essential to re-establish their credibility.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h5><b>Global Scenario:<\/b><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All over the world, scandals and rights abuses led to reforms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>U.S<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: In the mid-1970s, shocked by CIA spying, the US enacted oversight mechanisms, including congressional scrutiny.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the US, congressional intelligence committees, which work within a ring of secrecy, must be informed in advance of special operations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Australia and Canada:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They enacted safeguards in the 1980s. In Canada, for instance, ministerial instructions have to be put in writing and made available to the oversight committee.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Australia, reporting is done to an independent inspector-general, who further reports to the leader of the opposition.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>U.K and Norway<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: In the UK, the intelligence and security committee\u2019s oversight is limited to policy and finance. In Norway, to matters of human rights and the rule of law.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Way Ahead<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><b>Parliamentary oversight doesn\u2019t mean the whole House.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> A specialised parliamentary committee to exercise systematic and focussed oversight is what India needs.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India could do well by following the US model of parliamentary oversight.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Times of India\u00a0 Synopsis: The alleged spying attack (Pegasus) on opposition leaders, journalists and protestors has raised questions over the accountability and independent functioning of intelligence agencies. In this context, a private member bill is introduced for allowing parliamentary oversight over them. Background: Congress MP Manish Tewari has revived his private members\u2019 bill to&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/spooky-change\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Spooky change<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10322,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216],"class_list":["post-121279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700791474,"cached_date":1704487087},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}