Book Review: Tamil Nadu’s ‘whistle-blower’ had a clear conscience

The image of A Shankar on the cover of the book Oozhal — Ulavu — Arasiyal (Corruption – Intelligence gathering – Politics) brought back sharp memories. As journalists, we always look for that one story that will make an impact, and some time one can feel the impact for years, especially when others in the field recall the story again and again. One such report of mine came in the form of the ‘telephone tapping’ scandal that rocked the DMK government in the year 2008, and went on to change the lives of many politicians and police officers. 

The story was about a recorded telephone conversation between the then Chief Secretary with the then Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) director who were discussing the possibility of unearthing another case against AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa. Needless to say, it created quite a furore. However, in the knee-jerk reaction that followed the expose, a young government officer working in the DVAC department became collateral damage. A Shankar was seen as the source of the leak on which the report was based. He was subsequently arrested. 

After being released on bail, Shankar went on to gain cult status under the title ‘Savukku Shankar’, as his online writings targeted corrupt officials and politicians. Through his successful Tamil blog ‘Savukku’ (which means whip in English), he laid bare many a case, and several young journalists took their leads from his blogs and ‘broke’ stories. Some of his big exposes was how undeserving students get into premier institutes like Anna University through the CM’s quota. However, I would always remember Shankar as a fellow sufferer during the enquiry commission which was set up to examine the ‘telephone tapping’ scandal which implicated the TN police for eavesdropping into telephone conversations of opposition leaders and journalists. The commission was set up following my report that appeared in the newspaper I was working with at that time. The story went viral and I was one among several journalists and government officials who were summoned by the commission. Shankar and I first met only when we appeared before the commission which probed the media reports on the case. The enquiry commission was of the opinion that Shankar had leaked information to journalists. The police went on to project Shankar as ‘an enemy of the state’. 

It was after a long struggle of almost nine years that he was finally acquitted of the case in 2017 when the prosecution failed to prove the charges against him. Now, a decade after my report which triggered the dramatic series of events, including Shankar’s arrest, when I read his side of the story — I found it very touching. As per his book, he was arrested, tortured and intimidated because some police officials desperately wanted to pin the blame on him. The police were under pressure to find the person behind the phone tapping leaks, and Shankar bore the brunt of their witch-hunt. 

The book, written in first person, narrates his life story, and how the incident turned him into a crusader against corruption, his struggle with the police, his jail sentence and his new avatar as a blogger. Shankar captures the events beginning from untimely death of his father, who was a government servant, following which he was forced to take up a government job at a very young age of 16. He was just in Class 10, but was assigned to work with police officers investigating a sensitive case like J Jayalalithaa’s disproportionate assets. As a teenager, Shankar writes that while working as an office assistant in DVAC, he was completely out of place. “I addressed the staff and officials as ‘uncle/aunty’ rather than ‘sir/ madam’,” he says in the chapter that recounts his first job. Years later, that same naïve teenager, who joined the government in its lowest rung, managed to shake the system. It came at a price though. A price, which no average middle-class citizen would want to pay. 

The book goes on to document Shankar’s fight against the system and his eventual triumph. And in this fight, Shankar was not the only hero though. He remembers his friend Rajasekhar who agreed to use his name to file an RTI to unearth the details about two senior IPS officers who managed to get engineering seats for their children. Rajasekhar did so being fully aware of the consequences. Yet, he supported Shankar. Then, there were many others like Professor Kalyani, the physics professor turned activist, who files PILs on behalf of Shankar. The journalists, advocates and everyone who did their part in helping Shankar sail through this arduous voyage. Every honest, tax-paying citizen carries some sort of angst against the system. While the common man doesn’t openly fight against the system, the anger against their administrators- elected and selected — is clearly depicted in the book. 

Shankar engages the reader with his lucid writing style and one can only experience deep anguish while reading about the extent to which corruption has become entrenched in our lives. His extraordinary story from being a government servant to an anti-corruption crusader and a writer is no less of an inspiring tale. Police excess, judicial apathy and dirty politics, all are featured in the book. It documents the fight of a common man against the powerful government machinery, and carries a message. A common man can fight against the system and prevail. Is it worth it? That’s for our conscience to answer. Oh, and the million-dollar question that I have been asked over the years was whether Shankar was involved in the case or not? As far as I know, he was not the source. That vigilante is still out there, keeping an eye on the system.