Phone tapping to affect corporate psyche

Tuesday, October 07 1997

Phone tapping to affect corporate psyche

OUR CORPORATE BUREAU

NEW DELHI, Oct 6: Apex industry associations have come out strongly against the alleged telephone tapping of leading industrialists, terming the exercise an invasion of privacy and an encroachment on fundamental rights.The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has stated that the incident would have an adverse effect on the corporate psyche in the country.

"It will greatly demoralise them, adding to the atmosphere of mistrust and insecurity," said CII. The chamber has urged the Union government to take immediate measures to restore confidence, strengthen the law and order situation and make the state machinery effective and responsive.

CII has claimed that the government's inaction in several parts of the country has resulted in further erosion in the confidence level of the industry, which has so far kept the production lines and employment in place even in trying times of terrorism and kidnapping.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) has demanded a thorough inquiry into the tapping of private telephone conversations of the country's leading industrialists.

The chamber's alternate president, L Lakshman, said that an inquiry has become all the more necessary in the context of the government's denial of any official involvement. The tapping of a telephone, presumably by a private agency without government authorisation, was a serious matter as it amounted to gross intrusion of the privacy of Indian citizens, he said.

Lakshman wondered whether the various institutions created under our democratic system were capable of functioning responsibly with accountability .

Such a transgression of citizens' fundamental rights which are enshrined in the Constitution strike at the very fundamentals of our democratic structure and values, he added.

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) president Binay Kumar, who described the tapping incident as "highly unethical and undesirable", said that the entire business community depends on confidentiality and the tappings will affect the faith of the business community in the system.