The act of a person inside an organisation disclosing information about wrongdoing, such as corruption, fraud, danger to public health or abuse of power, to authorities or the public, usually at personal risk.
Deep-dive lesson:Corruption: Causes, Effects and Remedies. This page is a quick reference that connects the term across subjects; read the lesson for the full treatment.
The term comes from the image of a referee blowing a whistle to stop foul play. Whistle-blowers have exposed some of the most important scandals worldwide. In India, the murder of Satyendra Dubey, an engineer with the National Highways Authority of India, in 2003, after he wrote to the Prime Minister's Office about corruption in the Golden Quadrilateral project, shocked the country. His name had been leaked despite his request for confidentiality. Similar cases followed, including the killing of Shanmugam Manjunath of Indian Oil in 2005 after he acted against fuel adulteration.
In response, the Government of India passed the Public Interest Disclosure and Protection of Informers (PIDPI) resolution in 2004, designating the Central Vigilance Commission to receive complaints and protect identities. The Law Commission and the Second Administrative Reforms Commission recommended a full law. The Whistle Blowers Protection Act was passed in 2014, but an amendment bill introduced in 2015 to add exemptions lapsed, and the Act has not been operationalised through rules.
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