It is fun to listen to private conversations without the knowledge of the parties engaged in conversation. It is like the kind of pleasure one gets from eavesdropping. In doing so, one might get information that is not in the public domain and it would not be possible for anyone to get that information otherwise by any other means. More so with the rulers who, these days, have made laws like Official Secrets Act to keep their misdeeds under hermetically sealed wraps.

The sinister decisions and misdeeds, as also their thinking on people and issues, could be known to the civil society at large only when individuals like Julian Assange, the Swiss inveterate activist, spilled the beans through his website aptly called Wiki - Leaks. This indeed is an earth - shaking event for all its no – holds - barred revelations of the High and Mighty who rule us and control the economy of countries.

During my college days I was very fond of a song which went something like this, "There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza… fix it dear Henry…" etc. Similarly, there is a hole in the cables, the networking of information made possible due to the new data - sharing craze by various government departments. Will someone fix it to end the damage or embarrassment it is causing to individuals and countries? The WikiLeaks in some ways is the consequence of such craze. This kind of leak was enabled when computer systems of various departments share information. Thus a person like Julian Assange is able to download secret and private readouts of conversations between two individuals who are of consequence in government, industry or politics like for example Rahul Gandhi.

Poor Rahul unwittingly got into the WikiLeak web when in a cable of Aug. 3, 2009; he was found making a damaging remark about Hindu terror. According to the leak, Rahul Gandhi in July 2009, responding to US envoy Timothy Roemer's query about Lashkar – e - Toiba's threat to India, put his foot in the mouth when he said, "the bigger threat may be the growth of radicalised Hindu group."

This has been seen by the BJP, RSS and other Hindutvavadis as condoning the Lashkar's terror acts and threats, attracting such severe criticism from the Vishwa Hindu Parishat's International General Secretary Praveen Togadia who said that Rahul Gandhi was another Jinnah. He charged that "The Congress is behaving like Muslim League and Rahul is acting as the new Avatar of Mohammed Ali Jinnah," as reported in The Sunday Express (Dec. 19, 2010).

Small wonder what would be the perception of US, which is leading the world in tackling terrorism, about the problem of terrorism in our country, if our own politicians like Rahul Gandhi keep talking to men of consequence like the US envoy, the way he spoke. Perish the thought.

Now let us come to our leak - Niira Radia tapes. Here too, the tapes tumbled out rather unwittingly. The original intention in phone - tapping of Niira Radia was NOT for the 2G Spectrum scandal. It was as innocent as finding out if there was any Income tax evasion on her part. Even this was because of a letter written as long back as August 2008, as a complaint or an information, to the government by an apparently disgruntled officer of Radia's firm, Vaishnavi Corporate Communications, along with the senior officer of Reliance Communications — may be a matter of business rivalry. See where this has led to now. The winter session of the Parliament was a total washout.

Opinions about the ethics of government leaks and phone - tapping are divided, no doubt. Is it not a violation of Official Secrets Act (which is necessary in the interest of our country's security) or intrusion into the privacy (which is a fundamental right of a person) of a citizen?

The answer undoubtedly is yes. But then an individual's right to life, liberty, property, pursuit of happiness etc., can't be at the cost of our country's security or another individual's rights. Let us remember the axiom that "Your right ends where other person's nose begins."

By the way, do you know if the Police had not tapped the cell - phone conversation of the forest brigand Veerappan with his trusted lieutenant Meese Madaiah in 2004, it would not have been possible to trap Veerappan into the imminent need for his eye - operation and then eliminate him?

In a civilised society, we should not allow ourselves to be made victims of too much morality or ethics. Right? You are the judge.