There is nothing illegal in the sting operation, says Bahal

NEW DELHI: Aniruddha Bahal's sting operation showing 11 MPs taking money to ask questions in Parliament has raised a slew of issues about media ethics. Bahal, however, told DNA in an exclusive interview that his conscience is clear.

The press is the fourth estate in a democracy. Its role is supposed to be that of a watchdog reporting on actualities. Haven't you crossed the boundary with your sting operation by using a hidden camera to create a situation under false pretences?
The use of a hidden camera is intrusive. It should only be utilised where the public interest quotient is high. I have done three stories using a hidden camera, matchfixing in cricket, Tehelka and now Operation Duryodhana. In my conscience, I am clear that all three were matters of public interest.

Who is to define public interest?
It is up to the media to define it. I think self-regulation is the best option. We have to evolve a code but it shouldn't be a written code because that can be dangerous. In India, we don't have a case law that spells out what is public interest. But if this case goes to court, then public interest will become the defining factor.

Aren't you guilty of entrapment? You have pretended to be someone you're not and enticed MPs to take money.
There is a case law in the US defining entrapment. In India, we don't have a similar case law. If the law allows me to walk the grey area, then I will walk it. Look, we didn't go fishing in this case. The middlemen fixed the first meeting for us. After that, the MPs kept calling us. They knew that we were offering money to them to ask questions in Parliament.

But they didn't know your identity. They didn't know you were a journalist.
There will obviously be an element of deception. You can't do a story without it. Would the MP have allowed me in if I had told him I'm a journalist with a hidden camera
and I'm going to video tape him taking money?

You told our correspondent that one MP refused to take money from you. Why didn't you show this also, as the other side of the picture?
Yes, one MP threw us out. There was a second MP who we marked as a grey area because when we told him that we had paid the middleman, he refused to take the money from the middleman. So we omitted him as well. We decided not to drag these MPs into the case needlessly. The atmosphere was so super-charged and we felt that these MPs would find it uncomfortable to be shown along with those who took money from us. I told the Lok Sabha Speaker this when I met him the next day and he also agreed that these two MPs should be kept out of the picture.

There is speculation that you have many more MPs on tape and you will release these clips after some time.
That's all hogwash. We've shown all we have. There were 55 tapes in all because we taped each and every meeting we had with the 11 MPs and we had several meetings.

Do you fear that there will be a backlash?
Actually, I am pleasantly surprised that there is no propaganda against us this time. It's a pleasant change from Tehelka. Then, they started shooting the messenger from the very first day.

Isn't it dangerous for democracy if the media loses its credibility because it's using questionable means to get stories?
Look, if our democracy can absorb this kind of aggression from the media, it's a sign of our strength. It's something we should be proud of. As for our MPs, they are public servants. A certain code of conduct is expected from them. It destroys the basis of our democracy if they take bribes to do something they are supposed to do as the people's representatives in Parliament.